Non-word repetition and sentence imitation skills in Maltese children with a language impairment

Abstract

This research study analysed the performance of Maltese 5 to 8 year old children with language difficulties on the Maltese and English non-word repetition test (NWRT), (Tabone, 2018) and sentence imitation task (SIT), (Grech et al., 2011). The main aim of this study was to compare the performance of children with language difficulties with the norms of typically developing (TD) children for both tests, with language difficulties, in this study, the age ranged from 5;00 to 8;04 years. By determining the number of percentage errors and examining the types of phonological processes used in the NWRTs and scoring and examining the types of errors in the SIT, the responses were evaluated and subjected to quantitative and qualitative analysis. When the Maltese TD children's performance was compared to Maltese children with language difficulties, it was found that there was a substantial disparity between their abilities on the Maltese and English NWRT and SIT, with the children with language difficulties scoring lower on both tests than TD children. Despite these differences, there were some parallels; both groups made similar types of errors in the SIT and similar phonological pattern errors in the NWRT. The findings of this study highlight the value of the NWRTs and SITs as essential diagnostic markers for Developmental Language Disorder (DLD).