Profiles of Early Expressive Phonological Skills-Brazilian Portuguese (PEEPS-BP): a diagnostic accuracy study.

Abstract

Purpose: To present the criterion validity, sensitivity, specificity, and cut-off scores for the Profiles of Early Expressive Phonological Skills Test - Brazilian Portuguese (PEEPS-BP) - Expanded List.

Methods: This was a quantitative cross-sectional psychometric study. The sample consisted of 30 children with no identified neurodevelopmental disorders aged 24 to 36 months. Twenty-three were part of the control group, and seven were part of the clinical group, which consisted of children with reported delays in vocabulary acquisition and phonological development. Children were administered the PEEPS-BP - Expanded List and responses to each item/stimulus were analyzed based on the following categories: spontaneous naming, repetition, and not naming the item at all. Criterion validity was established using Student's T-test to compare the scores obtained by clinical and control group participants on the instrument. Sensitivity and specificity analyses were performed using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) Curves. Results were considered significant at p ≤ 0.05.

Results: Scores of the clinical and control groups differed significantly at p ≤ 0.001. A cut-off point of 34 had a sensitivity of 0.957 and specificity of 100.00 in distinguishing between the two participant groups.

Conclusion: The PEEPS-BP had adequate criterion validity and cut-off points that could distinguish between the clinical and control group with satisfactory sensitivity and specificity.