Early Repetition Battery (ERB)

Early Repetition Battery (ERB)

Assess phonological and morphosyntactic processing abilities

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  Author/s: Belinda Seeff-Gabriel, Shula Chiat and Penny Roy, 2008


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  Age Range: 2 years to 6 years


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  Administration: Individual – 10 to 15 minutes

The ERB is a UK-developed and standardised test battery, based on a nationally stratified sample of children. ERB consists of two expressive tasks: the Preschool Repetition Test (PSRep), comprising real and non-words controlled for length and prosodic structure; and the Sentence Imitation Test (SIT) comprising sentences controlled for length and syntactic complexity.

Nonword and sentence repetition tasks have been identified as clinical markers of SLI and children’s performance has been found to correlate with a variety of language measures in both typically and atypically developing children.

The ERB is easy for young children to understand and quick to administer, score and interpret.  Standard scores and percentiles are provided for total performance on PSRep, and for performance on whole sentences, content words, function words, and inflections on SIT.  Additional optional analyses of errors are included.

The scoring system makes allowances for speech difficulties, and a special scoring system for SIT enables the assessment of morphosyntactic abilities in children with severe speech impairment.

Results can be used to diagnose difficulties, inform therapy or IEP targets and monitor progress.

The ERB may be used by Speech and Language Therapists, Speech and Language Assistants, Psychologists, Teachers, Health Visitors and Nursery Nurses to identify risk of language impairment in preschool children.

For professionals with relevant training, the scoring system allows more detailed analysis of phonological and morphosyntactic performance to identify specific difficulties.

Research studies have shown that PSRep and SIT discriminate between children with and without language problems, and provide specific information about phonological and morphosyntactic processing skills and deficits.

Complete kit: Includes manual, puppet and pack of 25 record forms in a bag