Adaptation and validation of receptive expressive emergent Language Test-3: Evidence from Hindi speaking children with cochlear implant

REACh for the preschoolers; a developmental assessment tool for 2-5 year old children in Sri Lanka

BACKGROUND

Preschool children in low resource settings are at higher risk of missing developmental potential due to the lack of standardized and validated methods for the timely detection of children with developmental delays or neurodevelopmental disorders. The preschool teacher is a non-specialist resourceful link within the community to detect and offer interventions early. This paper discusses the preliminary iteration of designing and testing the psychometric properties of a developmental assessment for children aged 24 to 60 months in Sri Lanka. This assessment is designed to be conducted by preschool teachers in their preschool setting.

METHODS

Three processes followed: 1. Designing and development of the Ragama Early Assessment for Children (REACh) complete preschool developmental assessment and a tool kit 2. Testing and training teachers on conducting the REACh assessment 3. Preliminary assessment of the psychometric properties including content validity, internal consistency, interrater reliability and concurrent validity.

RESULTS

A literature search identified 11 assessments and 542 items representing cognitive, social-emotional and adaptive, language and motor domains. Content validity was assessed to select and adapt items. A complete assessment tool was designed to be administered in four settings within the preschool. This was further improved during pre and pilot testing and teacher training. Cronbach's alpha measuring internal consistency was > 0.70 for cognitive, language, social-emotional and adaptive domains across all three age groups in 1809 children. Interrater reliability was > 65% for age groups 36-47 and 47- 60 months. Concurrent validity using a clinical gold standard demonstrated sensitivity of more than 0.75 for all age groups with variable specificities (24-35 months: 0.71, 36- 47 months: 0.43 and 48-60 months: 0.67) assessed in 75 children.

CONCLUSIONS

This culturally and linguistically adapted tool was tested nationally in Sri Lanka. The inte-rrater reliability between teachers and research assistants was higher than 65% for all domains in children more than 36 months. The preliminary iteration confirms it as an acceptable screening assessment for all age groups but with significantly lower specificity in the 36-47 month age group. Further improvement in certain domains together with intense teacher training is likely to enhance the validity and reliability of the assessment.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

Ethics clearance for the procedure was granted prospectively from the Ethics Review Committee, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya (ERC no. P 131/06/2018).

Receptive and Expressive Language in Hindi Speaking Children with Postcochlear Implantation at 6-Month Intervals

Introduction  Individual variability in the language outcomes of children with cochlear implantation (CI) is a major concern. In CI rehabilitation, there is lack of a protocol regarding uniform post-CI language assessment interval duration, which can ensure better understanding of the trajectory of language growth as well as optimize language outcomes by providing feedback in fine tuning the language intervention program.

Objective  To evaluate the receptive and expressive language in Hindi speaking children with up to 2 years of CI experience using revised receptive-expressive emergent language test-3ed. (REELT-3) at 6 months intervals and to compare it with that of children with normal hearing (NH).

Methods  The present study included 192 children divided in 2 groups, 96 children with CI (15.8 ± 6.7 months), and 96 age-matched children with NH (22.3 ± 7.9 months). A cross-sectional, prospective study design was used to measure the language ability score (LAS) at an interval of 6 months from the time of implantation (TIA), which is 0 to 6 months, 7 to 12 months, 13 to 18 months, and 19 to 24 months of CI usage.

Results  The two-way analysis of variance revealed that the LAS after 18 months of CI usage was similar to (F (3, 92) = 8.63, p  = 0.19, ηp2 = 0.028) that of the children with NH. However, other demographic factors, for instance, gender (F (3, 92) = 1.73, p  = 0.505, ηp2 = 0.002), parent's education, (F (3, 92) = 2.05, p  = 0.937, ηp2 = 0.031), and financial background (F (3, 92) = 2.49, p  = 0.351, ηp2 = 0.076) had no major impact on language.

Conclusion  Eighteen months of CI usage duration can potentially stimulate receptive and expressive language up to age-matched children with NH. A protocol of periodic assessment of language, at least of 6 months, may be developed to optimize language outcomes.