“Early detection of Spanish-speaking children with developmental language disorders: Concurrent validity of a short questionnaire and a screening test”

Background

. Under-identification of Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is a significant problem in monolingual Latin American Spanish-speaking children. We evaluated the identification utility of the sequential use of two screening tools, the "Parental Questionnaire (PQ)" and the "Screening for Language Problems (TPL)", to identify children who require confirmatory diagnosis of DLD.

Methods

: Parents of children (4 to 6 years) were contacted in schools and public health centers in Mexico. Monolingual Spanish-speaking children with no auditory and cognitive disorders were eligible. The reference diagnosis of DLD was established using BESA (Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment) or SCELF-4 (Spanish Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals), combined with data from the narrative samples that yielded the percentage of ungrammaticality and the clinical judgment of two Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs). Responses to the PQ were obtained as a parental report, and the TPL was applied by a trained SLPs.

Results

. Both PQ and TPL presented a significant difference between the groups of children with DLD and typical language development (TLD). By combining the two instruments, a notable improvement in diagnostic utility was shown.

Conclusion

. The combination of these two procedures provides an efficient method for screening children having the risk of DLD and contributes to resolving the problem of under-identification.