Reliability and Validity of Dynamic and Processing-based Assessments for Language in Diverse Bilingual School-age Children

不同双语学龄儿童的动态和基于处理的语言评估的可靠性和有效性

• 批准号: 10583873
• 负责人: Kerry Danahy Ebert
• 金额: $ 40万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-05-01 至 2028-04-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10583873
• 关键词: 4 year old; 6 year old; Address; Affect; Assessment tool; Attention; Child; Child Language; Clinical; Clinical Services; Complement; Educational process of instructing; English Language; Environment; Exposure to; Future; Growth; Home; Household; Interview; Knowledge; Language; Language Development; Language Development Disorders; Language Disorders; Learning; Linguistics; Measures; Methods; Minority; Modeling; Parents; Population; Process; Property; Psychometrics; Risk; Sampling; School-Age Population; Schools; Sensitivity and Specificity; Services; Shapes; Short-Term Memory; Structure; Target Populations; Testing; Time; Underserved Population; Validity and Reliability; Work; academic program; attentional control; bilingualism; clinical implementation; cohort; diagnostic accuracy; disorder risk; educational atmosphere; experience; high risk; improved; indexing; innovation; interest; language impairment; language outcome; learning ability; longitudinal design; nonEnglish language; novel; novel strategies; peer; processing speed; recruit; response; skills; teacher; tool

Project Summary/Abstract Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) demonstrate deficits in language compared to unaffected peers from similar language-learning environments. Conventional assessment methods for DLD capture a child’s current skill level in one language; in the U.S., such assessments are available only in English or Spanish. These methods fail sequential bilingual children, who speak a minority language at home and are subsequently exposed to English, because they confound language-learning ability with prior language- learning experience. Assessments that index language-learning ability are sorely needed, especially for sequential bilingual children whose home language is not Spanish. This project evaluates two novel approaches to language assessment for sequential bilingual children: dynamic assessment and processing-based assessment. Dynamic assessment methods offer language teaching during the assessment and evaluate the child’s response. Processing-based methods assess underlying skills that may drive language learning. This project rigorously examines the psychometric properties of dynamic and processing-based assessments within a diverse group of sequential bilingual children entering English-based schooling. We will recruit 165 children aged 4 years, 10 months to 6 years, 2 months who speak any non-English language at home. The first study timepoint will occur as children enter the school year and include an experimental assessment battery with dynamic assessments at the narrative and morpheme levels and both linguistic and non-linguistic processing- based assessments. The assessment battery will be repeated 1 month later. Aim 1 establishes psychometric properties of the experimental assessment battery, including internal consistency and test-retest reliability, factor structure, and concurrent validity. Aims 2 and 3 then use a longitudinal design to examine predictive validity. Children will be followed over two academic years, with re-assessment every 4 months (totaling 5 growth timepoints following the initial assessment and test-retest timepoint). At each growth timepoint, children will complete an English language sample and parents and teachers will be interviewed to assess the language environment and presence of concerns regarding the child’s language. We will construct models of English growth that account for child-external factors (e.g., language environment, SES) and then determine how well the experimental dynamic and processing-based assessment battery predicts this growth (Aim 2). We will then identify a group of children at high risk of DLD based on the combination of poor English growth and parent or teacher concern regarding language development. Aim 3 will examine the sensitivity and specificity of the initial assessment battery for predicting DLD. Project results will demonstrate whether multiple dynamic assessment and processing-based assessment tools can reliably and validly measure language-learning ability across variable language-learning environments. For millions of children who speak home languages other than English, this project represents a critical step in validating language assessment tools.

项目摘要/摘要 患有发育语言障碍（DLD）的儿童与 来自类似语言学习环境的未受影响的同龄人。 DLD的常规评估方法 用一种语言捕获孩子当前的技能水平；在美国，此类评估仅提供英语 或西班牙语。这些方法失败了顺序双语儿童，他们在家里说少数语言，并且是 随后接触英语，因为它们将语言学习能力与先前的语言混淆 - 学习经验。迫切需要评估语言学习能力的评估，尤其是 双语儿童的家庭语言不是西班牙语。该项目评估了两种新颖的方法 对顺序双语儿童的语言评估：基于动态评估和基于处理的动态评估 评估。动态评估方法在评估过程中提供语言教学，并评估 孩子的回应。基于处理的方法评估可能推动语言学习的基础技能。这 项目严格检查基于动态和加工评估的心理测量特性 一群序列双语儿童进入英语学校。我们将招募165个孩子 年龄4岁10个月至6岁零2个月，他们在家讲任何非英语语言。第一个研究 时间点将在儿童进入学年时发生，并包括一个带有实验性评估电池 叙事和词素层面以及语言和非语言处理的动态评估 - 基于评估。评估电池将在1个月后重复。 AIM 1建立心理测量学 实验评估电池的特性，包括内部一致性和重测可靠性， 因子结构和并发有效性。目标2和3然后使用纵向设计来检查预测 有效性。在两个学年中，儿童将被遵循，每4个月进行一次重新评估（总计5 初始评估和重测定时间点之后的增长时间点）。在每个增长时间点， 孩子们将完成英语样本，父母和老师将接受采访以评估 语言环境和对孩子语言的担忧。我们将构建模型 英语增长说明儿童外部因素（例如语言环境，SES），然后确定 实验性动态和基于加工的评估电池预测这一增长的程度（AIM 2）。我们 然后，将根据英国增长不良和 父母或老师对语言发展的关注。 AIM 3将检查灵敏度和特异性 用于预测DLD的初始评估电池。项目结果将证明是否多次动态 基于评估和加工的评估工具可以可靠，有效地衡量语言学习能力 跨越可变的语言学习环境。对于数以百万计的孩子说家语的孩子 比英语，该项目代表了验证语言评估工具的关键步骤。