Downloaded From: http://lshss.pubs.asha.org/ by a ReadCube User on 01/10/2018 Terms of Use: http://pubs.asha.org/ss/rights_and_permissions.aspx specificity, however, we have no reason to expect high classification accuracy, even if conceptual scoring is used. Thus, we explore the diagnostic accuracy of conceptual vocabulary scoring to determine if using conceptual scoring with single-word vocabulary tests increased their sensitivity so they might contribute to the identification of SLI in bilingual children.
Vocabulary Difficulties in Children With SLILexical acquisition deficits are a commonly noted characteristic of SLI in research and clinical practice (Gray, 2004(Gray, , 2005(Gray, , 2006Horohov & Oetting, 2004;Kiernan & Gray, 1998;Nash & Donaldson, 2005;Rice, Oetting, Marquis, Bode, & Pae, 1994;Weismer & Hesketh, 1998). Compared with peers with typically developing (TD) language skills, children with SLI exhibit slower vocabulary growth (Rescorla, Roberts, & Dahlsgaard, 1997), difficulty learning new words (Alt, Plante, & Creusere, 2004;Alt & Suddarth, 2012), and limited expressive vocabulary (Gray & Brinkley, 2011). Experimental studies comparing children with SLI and TD language skills document significant difficulties in word learning. For example, Weismer and Hesketh (1998) found that children with SLI require more exposures to a word to comprehend or produce it than their TD peers. In both fast mapping and quick incidental learning tasks, children with SLI learn fewer novel words (Alt, 2011;Alt et al., 2004;Gray, 2004Gray, , 2006Oetting, Rice, & Swank, 1995;Rice, Cleave, & Oetting, 2000;Rice et al., 1994). They also demonstrate weaknesses in word retrieval (Gray, 2004;Gray & Brinkley, 2011;Kambanaros et al., 2015;McGregor, Newman, Reilly, & Capone, 2002), naming errors, and word approximation difficulties (Dollaghan, 1998;Sheng & McGregor, 2010;Spaulding, 2010).Due to these documented deficits in word learning and perhaps to their ease of administration and scoring, vocabulary tests are widely used by clinicians to determine whether a child's language skills require further evaluation (Campbell, Bell, & Keith, 2001), as a method of identifying SLI in children for research studies (Rice et al., 1990;Rice, Buhr, & Oetting, 1992;Rice et al., 1994), or to document vocabulary growth (Rowe, Raudenbush, & Goldin-Meadow, 2012). While numerous comprehensive language batteries are commercially available to clinicians, vocabulary tests are frequently used as a component of diagnostic evaluations of children to determine if a child meets the criteria for SLI (Betz et al., 2013), even though test manuals may not recommend them for this purpose (Brownell, 2000a).
Vocabulary Tests as Indicators of SLITo use vocabulary test scores for screening or identification purposes, clinicians must first be confident that the assessment has evidence of validity and reliability (McCauley & Swisher, 1984). Plante and Vance (1994) suggested that language tests that discriminate between children with and without SLI with an accuracy...