Receptive language skills among young children in rural Guatemala: The relationship between the Test de Vocabulario en Imagenes Peabody and a translated and adapted version of the Mullen Scales of Early Learning

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
pp. 702-708 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy K. Connery ◽  
Alison M. Colbert ◽  
Molly M. Lamb ◽  
Sara Hernández ◽  
María Alejandra Martínez ◽  
...  
2017 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine E. Snow

The lessons I have learned over the last many years seem always to come in pairs – a lesson about the findings that brings with it a lesson about life as a researcher...Lesson 1. Even as a doctoral student, I believed that the sorts of social interactions young children had with adults supported language acquisition. In 1971, when I completed my dissertation, that was a minority view, and one ridiculed by many. I was, unfortunately, deflected from a full-on commitment to research on the relationship between social environment and language development for many years by the general atmosphere of disdain for such claims. In the intervening years, of course, evidence to support the claim has accumulated, and now it is generally acknowledged that a large part of the variance among children in language skills can be explained by their language environments. This consensus might have been achieved earlier had I and others been braver about pursuing it.[Download the PDF and read more...]


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (7) ◽  
pp. 1246-1246
Author(s):  
A M Colbert ◽  
D Bauer ◽  
P Arroyave ◽  
S Hernández ◽  
M A Martínez ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective The literature supports using tests developed in high-income countries to assess children in low and lower-middle income countries (LMICs) when carefully translated, adapted, and applied (Holding et al., 2018; Mitchell et al., 2017). Research has shown the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL) to have adequate validity and sensitivity when used in LMICs (Bangirana et al., 2014; Koura et al., 2013), as well as equivalency to the American normative sample in lower risk populations (Bornman et al., 2010). Here, we describe the pattern of MSEL results in rural Guatemala. Participants and Method Children (n = 842; M enrollment age = 15.9 months; range 0-5 years) enrolled in an observational study of postnatal Zika exposure in rural Guatemala were administered an adapted and translated version of the MSEL (Connery et al., in press). To date, 352 children completed one, 393 children completed two, and 97 children completed three MSELs, for a total of 1,429 administrations. Results MSEL composite scores were similar to the American normative sample in children <12 months (M = 93.3, SD = 11.1), but lower for children ages 1-5 years (mean = 71.1, SD = 15.1, p < 0.0001). Moreover, lower scores were observed in children ages 1-5 years for all MSEL subscales, with the largest differences observed in receptive language (<12 years: mean = 47.8, SD = 7.1; 1-5 years: mean = 35.1, SD = 10.0, p < 0.0001). Conclusions Results are consistent with research that demonstrates a widening gap in test performance over time between children from higher and lower risk communities (Fernald et al., 2011; Paxson et al., 2005; Schady et al., 2015). Although findings are not meant to diagnose individual children, they highlight population changes in neurodevelopmental skills and the need for a better understanding of developmental patterns in LMICs. Future analyses will evaluate the impact of developmental risk factors over time and the performance of the MSEL in this population. References Bangirana, P., Opoka, R. O., Boivin, M. J., Idro, R., Hodges, J. S., Romero, R. A., … John, C. C. (2014). Severe Malarial Anemia is Associated With Long-term Neurocognitive Impairment. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 59(3), 336–344. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciu293. Bornman, J., Sevcik, R. A., Romski, M., & Pae, H. K. (2010). Successfully Translating Language and Culture when Adapting Assessment Measures, ppi_254 111.118. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1741-1130.2010.00254.x. Fernald, L. C. H., Weber, A., Galasso, E., & Ratsifandrihamanana, L. (2011). Socioeconomic gradients and child development in a very low income population: Evidence from Madagascar. Developmental Science, 14(4), 832–847. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2010.01032.x. Holding, P., Anum, A., van de Vijver, F. J. R., Vokhiwa, M., Bugase, N., Hossen, T., … Gomes, M. (2018). Can we measure cognitive constructs consistently within and across cultures? Evidence from a test battery in Bangladesh, Ghana, and Tanzania. Applied Neuropsychology: Child, 7(1), 1-13 https://doi.org/10.1080/21622965.2016.1206823. Koura, K. G., Boivin, M. J., Davidson, L. L., Ouédraogo, S., Zoumenou, R., Alao, M. J., … Bodeau-Livinec, F. (2013). Usefulness of child development assessments for low-resource settings in francophone Africa. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics : JDBP, 34(7), 486–93. https://doi.org/10.1097/DBP.0b013e31829d211c. Mitchell, J. M., Tomlinson, M., Bland, R. M., Houle, B., Stein, A., & Rochat, T. J. (2017). Confirmatory factor analysis of the Kaufman assessment battery in a sample of primary school-aged children in rural South Africa. South African Journal of Psychology, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246317741822. Paxson, C., Schady, N., Izquierdo, S., León, M., Lucio, R., Ponce, J., … Hall, W. (2005). Cognitive Development among Young Children in Ecuador The Roles of Wealth, Health, and Parenting. Retrieved from http://econ.worldbank.org. Schady, N., Behrman, J., Araujo, M. C., Azuero, R., Bernal, R., Bravo, D., … Vakis, R. (2015). Wealth gradients in early childhood cognitive development in five Latin American countries. The Journal of Human Resources, 50(2), 446–463. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25983344.


1985 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula M. Pecyna ◽  
Ronald K. Sommers

Many school speech-language pathologists now assess communication skills of children as young as 3 years. Some of these young children are severely and multiply handicapped and difficult to test. When possible, norm-referenced and criterion-referenced measures are used to evaluate language skills of young children. Two norm-referenced tests—Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language (TACL,—age range 3 to 7 years) and Preschool Language Scale (PLS—age range 1 to 7 years)—and one criterion-referenced task, the Basic Two-Choice Object Discrimination Task (no age range specified)—were administered to nine severely handicapped preschool children. The purpose was not to compare the tests, which do not tap equivalent receptive language skills, but to study patterns of testing behavior and performance for each subject compared under test and retest conditions. Ratings were also assigned to each test and retest judging the degree to which results correlated with subjective estimates of each subject's receptive skills. Overall, performance and behavioral ratings for subjects tended to be best for the Two-Choice Task and worst for the TACL. Results of the Two-Choice Task were consistently judged to reflect each subject's receptive skills most accurately. Factors which may have influenced subject performance and behavior are discussed.


2021 ◽  
pp. 019394592110216
Author(s):  
Audrey Rosenblatt ◽  
Michael Kremer ◽  
Olimpia Paun ◽  
Barbara Swanson ◽  
Rebekah Hamilton ◽  
...  

Millions of young children undergo surgery and anesthesia each year, yet there is a lack of scientific consensus about the safety of anesthesia exposure for the developing brain. Also poorly understood is parental anesthesia-related decision-making and how neurotoxicity information influences their choices. The theoretical model of parental decision-making generated in this research explicates this process. Interviews with 24 mothers yielded a theoretical framework based on their narratives developed using a qualitative grounded theory analysis. Five major themes emerged from these interviews: emotional processing, cognitive processing, relationships as resources, the mother/child dyad, and the health care context. Mothers described a non-linear, iterative process; they moved fluidly through emotional and cognitive processing supported by relationships as resources and influenced by the health care context. A key element was the subtheme of the medical translator, an individual who provided context and information. The mother/child dyad grounded the model in the relationship with the child.


2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARILYN VIHMAN ◽  
TAMAR KEREN-PORTNOY

Carol Stoel-Gammon has made a real contribution in bringing together two fields that are not generally jointly addressed. Like Stoel-Gammon, we have long focused on individual differences in phonological development (e.g. Vihman, Ferguson & Elbert, 1986; Vihman, Boysson-Bardies, Durand & Sundberg, 1994; Keren-Portnoy, Majorano & Vihman, 2008). And like her, we have been closely concerned with the relationship between lexical and phonological learning. Accordingly, we will focus our discussion on two areas covered by Stoel-Gammon (this issue) on which our current work may shed some additional light.


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