title: A cross-linguistic study of real-word and non-word repetition as predictors of grammatical competence in children with typical language development.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although relationships among non-word repetition, real-word repetition and grammatical ability have been documented, it is important to study whether the specific nature of these relationships is tied to the characteristics of a given language.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study is to explore the potential cross-linguistic differences (Italian and English) in the relationship among non-word repetition, real-word repetition, and grammatical ability in three-and four-year-old children with typical language development.
  
  
  METHODS
  To reach this goal, two repetition tasks (one real-word list and one non-word list for each language) were used. In Italian the grammatical categories were the third person plural inflection and the direct-object clitic pronouns, while in English they were the third person singular present tense inflection and the past tense in regular and irregular forms.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A cross-linguistic comparison showed that in both Italian and English, non-word repetition was a significant predictor of grammatical ability. However, performance on real-word repetition explained children's grammatical ability in Italian but not in English.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Abilities underlying non-word repetition performance (e.g., the processing and/or storage of phonological material) play an important role in the development of children's grammatical abilities in both languages. Lexical ability (indexed by real-word repetition) showed a close relationship to grammatical ability in Italian but not in English. Implications of the findings are discussed in terms of cross-linguistic differences, genetic research, clinical intervention and methodological issues.
authors: Università di Padova, Padua, Italy. marco.dispaldro@unipd.it
authors: Marco
authors: M
authors: Dispaldro
authors: Patricia
authors: P
authors: Deevy
authors: Gianmarco
authors: G
authors: Altoé
authors: Beatrice
authors: B
authors: Benelli
authors: Laurence B
authors: LB
authors: Leonard
mesh_terms: D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D007802:Language; D007804:Language Development; D007807:Language Tests; D008037:Linguistics; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D006113:United Kingdom; D014706:Verbal Learning