Whats up with nonword repetition tasks? I previously blogged about an increasing body of literature suggesting that nonword repetition (NWR) tests are proving to be diagnostically important for language. In that post I also did some arm-chair speculation on the complex CHC factor structure of such tests/tasks---to attempt to explain why they are strongly associated with language learning.
Today I ran across another small study that supports this finding--this time a strong link between NWR and vocabulary development (Gc-VL; lexcial knowledge under crystallized intelligence/comprehension-knowledge) in two year olds. The article was by Stokes and Klee in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (50:4 [2009], pp 498–505.
Interesting stuff.
Today I ran across another small study that supports this finding--this time a strong link between NWR and vocabulary development (Gc-VL; lexcial knowledge under crystallized intelligence/comprehension-knowledge) in two year olds. The article was by Stokes and Klee in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (50:4 [2009], pp 498–505.
Interesting stuff.
Abstract: Background: This research explored the relative impact of demographic, cognitive, behavioural, and psycholinguistic factors on vocabulary development in two-year-old children. Methods: Two hundred and thirty-two children (24–30 months) were tested on expressive and receptive vocabulary, cognitive development, word learning and working memory skills. Parents completed a British adaptation (Klee & Harrison, 2001) of the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI; Fenson et al., 1993), a demographic questionnaire and a questionnaire regarding the child’s social-emotional behaviour. Results: Several demographic, child and processing variables were significantly correlated with CDI (vocabulary) scores, but the only significant unique predictors of CDI scores were nonword repetition (NWR; R2 change = .36), sex (R2 change = .05) and age (R2 change = .04). Scores were only included when a child completed the entire NWR test (77% of toddlers). Conclusions: The NWR task used in this experiment maximised participation in this group of toddlers, and was a strong predictor of vocabulary ability. Longitudinal research is warranted to explore the independent and reciprocal growth in working memory and language skills in children. Keywords: Language development, vocabulary development, working memory.Technorati Tags: psychology, education, educational psychology, school psychology, neuropsychology, preschool, vocabulary, nonword repition, language, Ga, auditory processing, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
