Piazzalunga Silvia, Previtali Lisa, Pozzoli Raffaella, Scarponi Letizia, Schindler Antonio
a Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences ''Luigi Sacco'' , Università degli Studi di Milano , Milan , Italy.
b IRCCS "E. Medea: La Nostra Famiglia" , Bosisio Parini , LC , Italy.
Clin Linguist Phon. 2019;33(5):437-456. doi: 10.1080/02699206.2018.1542542. Epub 2018 Nov 2.
The contribution of the phonological working memory to the Non-Word Repetition (NWR) task is well established, but growing evidence also suggests a valuable underlying role of oro-motor abilities. Assuming that NWR involves output implementation mediated by the speech motor system, the study aimed to develop a novel Italian NWR task of disyllabic and trisyllabic items. The task, for the first time, was composed using each Italian speech sound. The study also aimed to investigate the reliability proprieties of the task (test-retest, intra-rater, inter-rater), internal consistency, concurrent and construct validity, and to collect normative data for pre-school children. An observational cross-sectional study was conducted and 375 Italian-speaking typically developing children aged 3.0-6.11 years were assessed with the novel test. Two raters assessed inter-rater reliability in a random sub-sample; test-retest reliability was examined through a repeated administration of the task two weeks apart; intra-rater reliability was investigated by two evaluations of the same audio-recordings. To evaluate concurrent validity children were also assessed through a pre-existing NWR test, and to estimate construct validity, scores from children of different age groups were compared. Results indicated excellent test-retest, intra-rater, inter-rater reliability agreement, high internal consistency and good concurrent validity. Normative data suggested that successful performance on NWR increases with age and declines with an increase in stimuli length. Despite the low working memory load in the disyllabic and trisyllabic items, a saturation of the task was not observed for any age group. The novel NWR test is a reliable and valid instrument, and it can be applied in clinical practice to assess how the child retains, plans and articulates a phonological and motor programme of unknown verbal material.
语音工作记忆对非词重复（NWR）任务的贡献已得到充分证实，但越来越多的证据也表明口部运动能力具有重要的潜在作用。假设NWR涉及由言语运动系统介导的输出执行，本研究旨在开发一种新颖的意大利语双音节和三音节项目的NWR任务。该任务首次使用了每个意大利语音。本研究还旨在调查该任务的可靠性特性（重测、评分者内、评分者间）、内部一致性、同时效度和结构效度，并收集学龄前儿童的常模数据。进行了一项观察性横断面研究，用这种新颖的测试对375名年龄在3.0至6.11岁之间、以意大利语为母语且发育正常的儿童进行了评估。两名评分者在一个随机子样本中评估评分者间的可靠性；通过在两周内重复进行该任务来检查重测可靠性；通过对相同录音进行两次评估来调查评分者内可靠性。为了评估同时效度，还通过一项现有的NWR测试对儿童进行了评估，为了估计结构效度，比较了不同年龄组儿童的得分。结果表明重测、评分者内、评分者间的可靠性一致性极佳，内部一致性高，同时效度良好。常模数据表明，NWR任务的成功表现随年龄增长而提高，随刺激长度增加而下降。尽管双音节和三音节项目的工作记忆负荷较低，但未观察到任何年龄组的任务达到饱和状态。这种新颖的NWR测试是一种可靠且有效的工具，可应用于临床实践，以评估儿童如何保留、计划和清晰表达未知言语材料的语音和运动程序。
