Early language screening in City and Hackney: work in progress

Abstract

The paper describes the initial stages in the development of a screening instrument designed to identify children with impaired language development at the age of 2 1/2 years. The pilot study comprised 40 children seen for routine developmental surveillance at one of the Community Health Centres in City and Hackney District Health Authority. The screen was found to be both sufficiently sensitive and sufficiently specific to warrant further investigation. The discussion highlights a number of pertinent issues which have arisen from the study and which the authors consider to be of relevance to others considering the development of equivalent procedures.

Screening for Speech and Language Delay in Preschool Children: Systematic Evidence Review for the US Preventive Services Task Force

“…Ten studies in 9 publications used instruments that take Յ10 minutes to administer for children aged 2 to 3, including the Parent Language Checklist, 11 Structured Screening Test, 63 Levett-Muir Language Screening Test, 64 Fluharty Preschool Speech and Language Screening Test, 53,65 Screening Kit of Language Development, 66 Hackney Early Language Screening Test, 54,67 and Early Language Milestone Scale 68 (Table 5). All the studies tested expressive and/or receptive language.…”

“…All the studies tested expressive and/or receptive language. 11,53,54,[63][64][65][66][67][68] In addition, 3 studies tested articulation, 53,65 and 1 studied syntax and phonology. 64 For the 8 fair-and good-quality studies that provided data to determine sensitivity and specificity, sensitivity ranged from 17% to 100% and specificity ranged from 45% to 100%.…”

Screening for developmental language disability in 3‐year‐old children. Experiences from a field study in a Swedish municipality

“…Although developmental language disability (DLD) (see Appendix for definition) is considered fairly common there is no consensus about its prevalence ( Stevenson 1984; Silva 1987; Enderby & Davis 1989; Wong et al 1992 ). As there is no absolute distinction between what is normal and what is not, the criteria used will have an important influence on the prevalence figures ( Bishop & Edmundson 1987ab; Silva 1987; Dixon et al 1988 ; Lahey 1990; Westerlund 1994; Enderby & Emerson 1995). Thus, the prevalence in 3‐year‐old children ranges from 3–26% according to Swedish and international reports ( Stevenson & Richman 1976; Fundudis et al 1979 ; Klackenberg 1980; Bax et al 1983 ; Silva et al 1983 ; Wong et al 1992 ; Burden et al 1996 ).…”

Neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental outcome of children at age 6 and 7 years who screened positive for language problems at 30 months

“…The 30-month-old screening, designed for children aged 30 months (SD 2), is an adopted and modified version of a method developed in the UK (Dixon et al 1988, Law 1994. The screening comprised two parts: (1) a brief parental questionnaire containing items relating to the child's vocabulary, multi-word utterances, verbal comprehension, use of compensatory gestures, and oral motor skills, and to parental concern about the child's language ability; and (2) a brief observation and a rating of nurse-child communication in accordance with a structured schedule (see Miniscalco et al 2001 for details).…”