Locus of nonword repetition impairments in Mandarin-speaking children with developmental language disorder

Current theories of nonword repetition (NWR) impairments for children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) are developed predominantly using data from Indo-European languages. Seldom have relevant theories been attested to the morph-syllabic language Mandarin Chinese. The present research aimed to explore the locus of NWR impairments for Mandarin children with DLD. 80 Mandarin-speaking children with typical development (TD) and 80 children with DLD were compared on nonword repetition accuracy and error types. It was a three-factor design with language groups (children with DLD vs. TD children) as the between-subjects factor, and components (onset, rhyme, and tone) and syllable numbers (one to four syllables) as the within-subjects factors. The analysis showed that both groups had less accuracy on the two phonological segments (onset and rhyme) relative to tone and showed more errors in multi-syllable nonwords. Children with DLD exhibited more noticeable errors in onsets and rhymes, although they did not display similar issues with tones compared to TD children. Repeated measures ANOVAs showed that children with DLD had pronounced errors in onsets, especially in repeating multi-syllable nonwords. Error type analysis revealed that children with DLD displayed more multiple than single errors in nonword repetition. The results support the "segment-to-frame association" theory, suggesting that Mandarin children with DLD are constrained in the concurrent mapping process between onsets, rhymes, and tones.