ERIC Number: EJ1155661
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017-Oct
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0090-6905
EISSN: N/A
Screening for Specific Language Impairment in Preschool Children: Evaluating a Screening Procedure Including the Token Test
Willinger, Ulrike; Schmoeger, Michaela; Deckert, Matthias; Eisenwort, Brigitte; Loader, Benjamin; Hofmair, Annemarie; Auff, Eduard
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, v46 n5 p1237-1247 Oct 2017
Specific language impairment (SLI) comprises impairments in receptive and/or expressive language. Aim of this study was to evaluate a screening for SLI. 61 children with SLI (SLI-children, age-range 4-6 years) and 61 matched typically developing controls were tested for receptive language ability (Token Test-TT) and for intelligence (Wechsler Preschool-and-Primary-Scale-of-Intelligence-WPPSI). Group differences were analyzed using t tests, as well as direct and stepwise discriminant analyses. The predictive value of the WPPSI with respect to TT performance was analyzed using regression analyses. SLI-children performed significantly worse on both TT and WPPSI (p=.0001). The TT alone yielded an overall classification rate of 79%, the TT and the WPPSI together yielded an overall classification rate of 80%. TT performance was significantly predicted by verbal intelligence in SLI-children and nonverbal intelligence in controls whilst WPPSI subtest arithmetic was predictive in both groups. Without further research, the Token Test cannot be seen as a valid and sufficient tool for the screening of SLI in preschool children but rather as a tool for the assessment of more general intellectual capacities. SLI-children at this age already show impairments typically associated with SLI which indicates the necessity of early developmental support or training. Token Test performance is possibly an indicator for a more general developmental factor rather than an exclusive indicator for language difficulties.
Descriptors: Screening Tests, Clinical Diagnosis, Language Impairments, Preschool Children, Cognitive Development, Intelligence Tests, Discriminant Analysis, Verbal Ability, Test Validity, Predictor Variables, Foreign Countries, Hypothesis Testing, Multiple Regression Analysis, Multivariate Analysis, Statistical Analysis
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Austria (Vienna)
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A