Phonological Development in Toddlers using a Nonword Repetition Task

Objectives: This study investigated the phonological development of toddlers during early speech and language acquisition using a nonword repetition (NWR) task. It aimed to examine age-related changes in response patterns and phonological accuracy, as well as the relationship between phonological accuracy and expressive language ability. Methods: Fifty-four typically developing children aged 18 to 35 months were divided into three age groups. Each child was asked to repeat 15 nonwords. Responses were categorized into target responses, phonologically similar errors, lexical errors, babbling, and no response. Phonological accuracy was measured at the item, syllable, and phoneme levels. Expressive language scores were assessed using SELSI-Expressive language.Results: As age increased, the proportion of target responses increased, while lexical errors and no responses significantly decreased, and overall phonological accuracy improved. The accuracy of items and phonemes in nonword repetition was lower for nonwords with longer syllable lengths, particularly for those with three to four syllables. In addition, significant positive correlations were found between item accuracy for nonwords of two or more syllables and expressive language scores. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that the nonword repetition task may be useful for assessing phonological processing and speech production abilities in toddlers during early language acquisition, with performance showing a significant association with expressive language development.