Diagnosing bilectal children with SLI: Determination of identification accuracy

Very little is known about diagnosing specific language impairment (SLI) in children who are exposed daily to a dialect (community language) and a standard variety (school instruction). The research reported here examines the specificity and sensitivity of language tests used so far to evaluate lang...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Clinical linguistics & phonetics 2016-12, Vol.30 (12), p.925-943
Main Authors: Theodorou, Eleni, Kambanaros, Maria, Grohmann, Kleanthes K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bilectalism
Child
Child Language
Child, Preschool
Cyprus
diagnosis
diglossia
Female
Greek
Humans
Language Development Disorders - diagnosis
Language Tests - standards
Language Tests - statistics & numerical data
Male
Sensitivity and Specificity
SLI
Vocabulary
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Summary:Very little is known about diagnosing specific language impairment (SLI) in children who are exposed daily to a dialect (community language) and a standard variety (school instruction). The research reported here examines the specificity and sensitivity of language tests used so far to evaluate language performance in the context of diglossia (Cyprus). Sixteen children with SLI aged 5-9 years and 22 age-matched typically developing children were examined on a range of language tests modified to include dialectal differences. Properties of each test were evaluated through logistic regression analysis in order to identify children with SLI. The analysis revealed that many of the tests used are sufficiently accurate concerning sensitivity and specificity levels. Furthermore, a combination of tests is proposed as a good tool for diagnostic purposes. Speech and language therapists as well as researchers can now rely on an accurate diagnostic procedure within a practice-based evidence framework.
ISSN:0269-9206
1464-5076
DOI:10.1080/02699206.2016.1182591