The Quasi-Universal Nonword Repetition test (QU-NWR) aims to provide a way of distinguishing children with DLD from typically developing children, whether these children are monolingual or bilingual, on the basis of potential phonological difficulties. 

The effect of working memory has been reduced by limiting the length of nonwords to three syllables, since this effect, as reported in the literature, starts to appear from three syllables upwards. To limit the effect of lexical knowledge, instead of creating nonwords from existing words, nonwords were built from elementary blocks (syllables and segments). These building blocks were combined to form nonwords. This method makes it possible to finely manipulate the different blocks to be combined in order to obtain different degrees of phonological complexity.

Two types of items were created for this test: one labeled “language independent” (LI), and the other labeled “language dependent” (LD). The items labeled “language independent” are composed by segments and syllable structures that are available in most languages of the world. This label was given for the sake of simplicity, since these items would be more properly characterized as “quasi-independent.” Indeed, it is not possible to completely isolate nonwords from a specific language (Chiat, 2015). LD items were created by adding aspects of phonological complexity that are part of the language to be tested.

All items are composed of three vowels ([i], [a] and [u]) and five consonants (a labial stop, a dorsal stop, a labial fricative, a liquid and a coronal fricative). As voicing is not considered in the assessment, the exact consonant used is specified for each adaptation. For example, the French version used the labial stop [p], and the Lebanese version used the labial stop [b]. In both versions, child production of either [p] or [b] is counted as correct. The vowels and consonants used are available in almost all languages. The consonants selected are of varying degrees of phonological complexity and also make it possible to contrast place of articulation and manner of articulation (e.g. labial/dorsal and stop/fricative).

All items are composed of a subset of syllable structures: CV (a consonant followed by a vowel), CCV (a syllable may start with two consonants – branching onset position), and CVC# (the last syllable of the item may end in a consonant). The CV structure is considered the simplest, with each of the other two syllable structures adding a degree of phonological complexity. The syllabic structure of the LI items is kept the same, regardless of the language. For the LD items, other complex syllable structures are introduced according to the language of the adaptation. For example, in the French and German versions, CVC structure in which a syllable ends in a consonant word internally is used for the creation of LD items. These additional syllable structures used for the LD items are, in general, relatively uncommon across languages. The choice to manipulate syllable structure was made because syllables having complex structures, like a branching onset or a coda, have been shown to be appropriate markers for assessing phonological disorders. For each adaptation, items are recorded using prosody which is typical for the language of the adaptation.

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Presentation

The Quasi-Universal Nonword Repetition test is presented on PowerPoint. Several versions are available. The most common one is based on the story of an alien who wants to teach the child a few words in his own language. Nevertheless, all versions have proven to be engaging and age appropriate. The presentation could be audio only or audiovisual (i.e. providing visual cues for articulatory movements).