Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, 1090, Vienna, Austria.
Comprehensive Center of Pediatrics, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Neuropsychiatr. 2023 Sep;37(3):136-144. doi: 10.1007/s40211-023-00456-1. Epub 2023 Feb 6.
Nonword repetition tests (NWRT) can be useful tools together with other assessment procedures for diagnosing a developmental learning disorder in bilingual children. Concerning typically developing children, however, the link between NWRT performance and language development is still unclear. The present study contributes to this discussion by investigating the link between language-dependent NWRT performance, language development, and language exposure.
A total of 20 simultaneously bilingual Russian-German children, aged 4-6 years, were tested with "The Russian language proficiency test for multilingual children (SRUK)" and "Patholinguistische Diagnostik bei Sprachentwicklungsstörungen (PDSS)" as well as language-specific nonwords for Russian and German.
Most children scored within the mean range in SRUK. In PDSS they scored two standard deviations below the mean range in most of the subtests. NWRT in Russian significantly correlated with the NWRT in German and also positively correlated with both comprehension and production in Russian. In contrast, the German NWRT did not correlate with comprehension or with production in German. Moreover, the correlation between the German NWRT and the comprehension of grammatical structures in Russian was significant, and the correlations between the German NWRT and the two other Russian language development tests just failed to reach significance.
High scores in both the Russian and the German NWRT offer evidence that the ability to repeat language-specific nonwords does not differ depending on language exposure. The aim to distinguish between typical and atypical language development based on NWRT can be reached only when NWRT and all possible influencing factors in typically developed children are analyzed.
非词重复测试（NWRT）可以与其他评估程序一起，为双语儿童的发育性学习障碍的诊断提供有用的工具。然而，对于正常发育的儿童，NWRT 表现与语言发展之间的联系仍不清楚。本研究通过调查语言依赖性 NWRT 表现、语言发展和语言接触之间的联系，为这一讨论做出了贡献。
共有 20 名同时使用俄语和德语的双语儿童（年龄在 4-6 岁之间）接受了“多语言儿童俄语水平测试（SRUK）”和“语言障碍病理诊断（PDSS）”以及俄语和德语的语言特异性非词测试。
大多数儿童在 SRUK 中的得分处于平均范围之内。在 PDSS 中，他们在大多数子测试中的得分都低于平均范围两个标准差。俄语的 NWRT 与德语的 NWRT 显著相关，也与俄语的理解和表达呈正相关。相比之下，德语的 NWRT 与德语的理解或表达均无相关性。此外，德语 NWRT 与俄语语法结构理解之间的相关性显著，而德语 NWRT 与另外两个俄语语言发展测试之间的相关性则刚好未达到显著水平。
在俄语和德语的 NWRT 中均取得高分，这表明重复语言特异性非词的能力不受语言接触的影响。只有在分析了 NWRT 以及典型发育儿童的所有可能影响因素后，才能基于 NWRT 来区分典型和非典型的语言发展。
