PHONOLOGICAL WORKING-MEMORY IN VERY YOUNG-CHILDREN

This study was designed to establish whether phonological working memory skills could be assessed in children below 4 years of age. A group of 2- and 3-year-old children were tested on 3 phonological memory measures (digit span, nonword repetition. and word repetition) and were also given tasks that tapped other cognitive skills. Scores on the 3 phonological memory tasks were closely related. In addition, repetition performance was linked with both vocabulary knowledge and articulation rate. Results indicate that phonological memory skills can be reliably assessed in very young children by using conventional serial span and repetition procedures.