Reliability, validity and developmental sensitivity of the Language Use Inventory (LUI) in the Spanish context

Introduction

The Language Use Inventory (LUI) is a standardized parent-report questionnaire to assess pragmatic language development in children 18 to 47 months of age. The aim of this study is to describe the translation of the Language Use Inventory (LUI) from English to Spanish and to report findings on the Spanish version's reliability, validity and developmental sensitivity.

Methods

The original English version of the LUI was translated into Spanish. Parents of 236 typically developing children completed the inventory. A sub-sample of 107 participants completed the LUI-Spanish, again within 2 weeks, to assess test-retest reliability.

Results

Results showed that the LUI-Spanish demonstrates robust psychometric properties, exhibiting strong internal consistency and test-retest reliability, as well as good developmental sensitivity. Children's scores showed a decrease with age in the subscales that assess communication with gestures. In contrast, subscales that assess communication with sentences obtained significant higher scores with participants' age. No significant differences were found in terms of gender.

Conclusions

Findings indicate that the LUI-Spanish is a suitable tool for assessing the pragmatic skills of toddlers and preschool-aged children.