%0 Journal Article
%T Nonword Repetition in Children With Developmental Language Disorder: Revisiting the Case of Cantonese.
%A Fu NC
%A Chen S
%A Polišenská K
%A Chan A
%A Kan R
%A Chiat S
%J J Speech Lang Hear Res
%V 67
%N 6
%D 2024 Jun 6
%M 38683057
%F 2.674
%R 10.1044/2024_JSLHR-22-00397
%X <B>UNASSIGNED: </B>Nonword repetition (NWR) has been described as a clinical marker of developmental language disorder (DLD), as NWR tasks consistently discriminate between DLD and typical development (TD) cross-linguistically, with Cantonese as the only reported exception. This study reexamines whether NWR is able to generate TD/DLD group differences in Cantonese-speaking children by reporting on a novel set of NWR stimuli that take into account factors known to affect NWR performance and group differentiation, including lexicality, sublexicality, length, and syllable complexity.<BR><B>UNASSIGNED: </B>Sixteen Cantonese-speaking children with DLD and 16 age-matched children with TD repeated two sets of high-lexicality nonwords, where all constituent syllables are morphemic in Cantonese but meaningless when combined, and one set of low-lexicality nonwords, where all constituent syllables are nonmorphemic. Low-lexicality nonwords were further classified on sublexicality in terms of consonant-vowel (CV) combination attestedness (whether or not CV combinations in nonword syllables occur in real Cantonese words).<BR><B>UNASSIGNED: </B>Children with DLD scored significantly below their peers with TD. Effect sizes showed that high-lexicality nonwords and nonword syllables with attested CV combinations offered the greatest TD/DLD group differentiation. Nonword length and syllable complexity did not affect TD/DLD group differentiation.<BR><B>UNASSIGNED: </B>NWR can capture TD/DLD group differences in Cantonese-speaking children. Lexicality and sublexicality effects must be considered in designing NWR stimuli for TD/DLD group differentiation. Future studies should replicate the present study on a larger sample size and a younger population as well as examine the diagnostic accuracy of this NWR test.<BR><B>UNASSIGNED: </B>https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25529371.