Non-word repetition in bilingual children: the role of language exposure, vocabulary scores and environmental factors

Assessing language development in bilingual children is challenging in geographical areas where bilinguals have different native languages. Lexical development measures are often used as a starting point to study linguistic abilities in bilingual children. Non-word repetition (NWR) has been found to be very informative in detecting variation. The present study contributes to the broader research aim of documenting bilinguals’ language skills. In a sample of 19 Italian-speaking bilingual children with different native languages, correlations among performance on an Italian-like NWR and receptive vocabulary score (Italian PPVT-R), cumulative exposure, age of first exposure to Italian, current Italian exposure, maternal education, parental concerns and vocabulary in toddlerhood (MB-CDI) were calculated. NWR performances correlated with PPVT-R and parental concerns, but not with maternal education and language exposure measures. Neither NWR scores nor PPVT-R scores were related to Italian vocabulary size in toddlerhood (MB-CDI). We integrate our results with those of others and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of administering NWR to bilingual children, and more generally how to perform early bilingual language assessments.