Research Article

Validity and reliability of a non-sense syllable test for evaluating phonological working memory in Persian speaking children

Abstract

Background and Aim: Children with auditory processing disorders and impaired phonological working memory have difficulty in storing an accurate phonological representation of speech. Therefore, it is highly important to assess phonological working memory in this population. One of the methods in assessing phonological working memory is to use a non-sense syllable test. The aim of this study is to create a valid and reiable non-sense syllable test in order to evaluate phonological working memory in Persian speaking children with auditory processing disorders.
Methods: In this cross sectional comparative study, 40 non-sense syllable words were developed according to the criteria of non-syllable word construction and under supervision of a linguistic specialist. The non-sense syllable test was assessed in 53 boys and 47 girls from 7 to 10 years of age. The content validity of the nonsense syllable words was assessed by experts. To evaluate the validity of the test, correlation between the results of the test and forward digit recall and backward digit recall tests were measured. The non-sense syllable test was performed twice to evaluate its relaibility.
Results: The validity of the non-sense syllable test was 95.5 (SD=2). The correlation coefficient between nonsense syllable repetition, forward digit recall, and backward digit recall tests were 0.76 and 0.75 respectively (p<0.001). The correlation coefficient between different performances of non-sense syllable tests was 0.8 (p<0.001).
Conclusion: These findings show that the non-sense syllable repetition test can be used to evaluate phonological working memory in Persian speaking children from 7-10 years of age.

1. Gathercole SE. The development of memory. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 1998;39(1):3-27.
2. Moore DR, Ferguson MA, Edmondson-Jones AM, Ratib S, Riley A. Nature of auditory processing disorder in children. Pediatrics. 2010;126(2):e382-90.
3. Gathercole SE. Is nonword repetition a test of phonological memory or long-term knowledge? It all depends on the nonwords. Mem Cognit. 1995;23(1):83-94.
4. Gathercole SE, Willis CS, Baddeley AD, Emslie H. The children's test of nonword repetition: a test of phonological working memory. Memory. 1994;2(2):103-27.
5. Santos FH, Bueno OF. Validation of the Brazilian children's test of pseudoword repetition in Portuguese speakers aged 4 to 10 years. Braz J Med Biol Res. 2003;36(11):1533-47.
6. Gardner H, Froud K, McClelland A, van der Lely HK. Development of the grammar and phonology screening (GAPS) test to assess key markers of specific language and literacy difficulties in young children. Int J Lang Commun Disord. 2006;41(5):513-40.
7. Chiat S, Roy P. The preschool repetition test: an evaluation of performance in typically developing and clinically referred children. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2007;50(2):429-43.
8. Ebert KD, Kalanek J, Cordero KN, Kohnert K. Spanish nonword repetition stimuli development and preliminary results. Commun Disord Q. 2008;29(2):67-74.
9. Sayyahi F, Soleymani Z, Mahmoudi Bakhtiyari B, Jalaie S. Providing a non word repetition test in 4-year-old Persian children and determining its validity and reliability. Audiol. 2011;20(2):47-53. Persian.
10. Samareh Y. Persian language phonetics. 4th ed. Tehran: University Publication Center; 1995. Persian.
11. Hassani H. Persian today corpus: the most frequent words of today Persian. Tehran: Language Institute; 2005.
12. Maddah M, Azad-Fallah P, Salmani M, Rasoul zadeh tabtabie K. Phonological working memory in normal non fluent children. Journal of Clinical Psychology. 2011;3(3):1-11. Persian.
13. Sebastián MV, Hernández-Gil L. Developmental pattern of digit span in Spanish population. Psicothema. 2012;24(2):183-7.
14. Gathercole SE, Pickering SJ, Knight C, Stegmann Z. Working memory skills and educational attainment: evidence from national curriculum assessments at 7 and 14 years of age. Appl Cognit Psychol. 2004;18(1):1-16.
IssueVol 23 No 4 (2014) QRcode
SectionResearch Article(s)
Keywords
Working memory phonological loop nonword child Persian speaking
Rights and permissions
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
How to Cite
1.
Moossavi A, Khavarghazalani B, Lotfi Y, Mehrkian S, Bakhshi E, Mahmoodi Bakhtiari B. Validity and reliability of a non-sense syllable test for evaluating phonological working memory in Persian speaking children. Aud Vestib Res. 2017;23(4):31-39.