An articulatory-based disyllabic and trisyllabic Non-Word Repetition test: reliability and validity in Italian 3- to 7-year-old children

ABSTRACTThe contribution of the phonological working memory to the Non-Word Repetition (NWR) task is well established, but growing evidence also suggests a valuable underlying role of oro-motor abilities. Assuming that NWR involves output implementation mediated by the speech motor system, the study aimed to develop a novel Italian NWR task of disyllabic and trisyllabic items. The task, for the first time, was composed using each Italian speech sound.The study also aimed to investigate the reliability proprieties of the task (test–retest, intra-rater, inter-rater), internal consistency, concurrent and construct validity, and to collect normative data for pre-school children. An observational cross-sectional study was conducted and 375 Italian-speaking typically developing children aged 3.0–6.11 years were assessed with the novel test. Two raters assessed inter-rater reliability in a random sub-sample; test–retest reliability was examined through a repeated administration of the task two weeks apart; intra...