Identifying Language Disorder Within a Migration Context: Development and Performance of a Pre-school Screening Tool for Children With German as a Second Language.

Daniel Holzinger,Christoph Weber,Magdalena Jezek

doi:10.3389/fped.2022.814415

Abstract

BackgroundThere is a lack of accurate and practicable instruments for identifying language disorders in multilingual children in pre-school settings.ObjectiveTo develop a language screening instrument for pre-school children who are growing up with German as their second language.DesignAfter the development and initial validation of a language screening tool, the new instrument (LOGiK-S) was administered to three cohorts of children (2014, 2015, 2017) with a non-German first language attending a variety of public pre-schools in Upper Austria. The screening instrument measures expressive and receptive grammatical skills in German. The final validation study included the results for 270 children for the screening measure and reference tests. A combination of a standardized comprehensive language test of grammatical skills developed for children acquiring German as a second language and a test of expressive vocabulary with the use of specific cutoffs for second language learners was applied as the gold standard for identifying language disorders.ResultsThe LOGiK-S screening of expressive grammar demonstrated excellent accuracy (AUC.953). The screening subscale of receptive grammar did not improve the prediction of language disorders. Using an optimized cutoff yielded a fail rate of 17%, excellent sensitivity (0.940), and specificity (0.936). Time economy and acceptance of the screening by children and screeners were mostly rated as high.ConclusionThe LOGiK-S language screening instrument assessing expressive German grammar development using bilingual norms is a valid and feasible instrument for the identification of language disorders in second language learners of German at the pre-school age.

Highlights

With prevalence rates of about 10%, language disorders (LDs) can be considered the most frequent developmental problem in children under the age of 7 [1–4]
LD remains a diagnosis to be made by experienced clinicians able to assess different dimensions of language, the degree of impairment caused by the language difficulties, and the probability of persistence
The authors classified a child as language disordered when language performance was at least 1.5 standard deviations below the norm on at least two of five language domains

Summary

Introduction

With prevalence rates of about 10%, language disorders (LDs) can be considered the most frequent developmental problem in children under the age of 7 [1–4]. The term developmental language disorder (DLD) was endorsed in a consensus document by Bishop et al [5] as referring to language difficulties characterized by a lack of known biomedical etiology, functional impairment, and poor prognosis. Other researchers [1, 4, 7] defined a specific LD by scores of at least −1.25 standard deviations in at least two language domains. Problems often associated with pre-school LD include increased rates of behavioral, social, and emotional difficulties [8, 9], poor academic outcomes [10], and higher risk of unemployment [11]. There is a lack of accurate and practicable instruments for identifying language disorders in multilingual children in pre-school settings

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion