Validation of language evaluation scale Trivandrum in children aged 3 -6 years attending well baby clinic in a tertiary care hospital

Abstract

Background: Delay in language development is often an early and most sensitive indicator of intellectual disability. Language delay should be detected in early stages for early intervention, so our study is to validate a simple screening tool to assess language and speech delay in a tertiary care setting. Present study was conducted to validate LEST to use in pediatric clinics to identify delay in language development among children of 3-6years, and to compare LEST and extended receptive expressive emergent scale (Extended REELS).Methods: This was a cross sectional descriptive study done in children aged 3-6 years attending well baby clinic at a tertiary care hospital. Total sample size was 100. After the written informed consent, LEST was applied to all children initially and then extended REELS was administered in the department of speech and hearing.Results: The prevalence of language and speech delay in the present study was 16%. When one item delay was taken as ‘LEST delay’ (test positive), the sensitivity and specificity of LEST was found to be 25% and 80% respectively with a negative predictive value of 85% and Likelihood ratio (LR - negative) of 0.9. When two item delay was taken as ‘LEST delay, sensitivity and specificity, was found to be 44% and 99% respectively with a negative predictive value of 91% and LR (negative) of 0.5.Conclusions: The 16% prevalence of language delay in the children indicates the need for an early identification and for it a simple screening tool like LEST is a must during the routine evaluation of young children in pediatric clinics.

Gender Differences in the Performance of Language Assessment Scale Trivandrum (LEST) in Children Aged Between Zero and Three Years

“…A study conducted on the LEST scale on children aged three to six years by Singaraiah et al found that boys had a significantly higher language delay than girls, with a male-to-female ratio of 2.2:1 [ 6 ] The male-to-female ratio in the study by Nair et al was 1.3:1 [ 7 ]. Our study revealed a male-to-female ratio of 2:1, which was in line with the findings of Singaraiah et al [ 6 ] and Krogh et al [ 5 ] who used Bailey 3 scores and demonstrated gender differences in test scores; however, the pattern of the differences varied across scales and subtests.…”

“…Nair et al developed the LEST which was initially validated in young children (zero to three years old). It has been acknowledged as one of the best screening tools for identifying language and speech delays in a community context [ 6 ]. A total of 33 test items were selected from the list of items created from the pilot studies conducted among children aged zero to one year, one to two years, and two to three years.…”