Katzengoldstandards in der Sprachstandserfassung

Identifying Language Disorder Within a Migration Context: Development and Performance of a Pre-school Screening Tool for Children With German as a Second Language

BACKGROUND

There is a lack of accurate and practicable instruments for identifying language disorders in multilingual children in pre-school settings.

OBJECTIVE

To develop a language screening instrument for pre-school children who are growing up with German as their second language.

DESIGN

After the development and initial validation of a language screening tool, the new instrument (LOGiK-S) was administered to three cohorts of children (2014, 2015, 2017) with a non-German first language attending a variety of public pre-schools in Upper Austria. The screening instrument measures expressive and receptive grammatical skills in German. The final validation study included the results for 270 children for the screening measure and reference tests. A combination of a standardized comprehensive language test of grammatical skills developed for children acquiring German as a second language and a test of expressive vocabulary with the use of specific cutoffs for second language learners was applied as the gold standard for identifying language disorders.

RESULTS

The LOGiK-S screening of expressive grammar demonstrated excellent accuracy (AUC.953). The screening subscale of receptive grammar did not improve the prediction of language disorders. Using an optimized cutoff yielded a fail rate of 17%, excellent sensitivity (0.940), and specificity (0.936). Time economy and acceptance of the screening by children and screeners were mostly rated as high.

CONCLUSION

The LOGiK-S language screening instrument assessing expressive German grammar development using bilingual norms is a valid and feasible instrument for the identification of language disorders in second language learners of German at the pre-school age.

The Effectiveness of an Integrated Treatment for Functional Speech Sound Disorders-A Randomized Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND

The treatment of functional speech sound disorders (SSDs) in children is often lengthy, ill-defined, and without satisfactory evidence of success; effectiveness studies on SSDs are rare. This randomized controlled trial evaluates the effectiveness of the integrated SSD treatment program PhonoSens, which focuses on integrating phonological and phonetic processing according to the Integrated Psycholinguistic Model of Speech Processing (IPMSP).

METHODS

Thirty-two German-speaking children aged from 3.5 to 5.5 years (median 4.6) with functional SSD were randomly assigned to a treatment or a wait-list control group with 16 children each. All children in the treatment group and, after an average waiting period of 6 months, 12 children in the control group underwent PhonoSens treatment.

RESULTS

The treatment group showed more percent correct consonants (PCC) and a greater reduction in phonological processes after 15 therapy sessions than the wait-list control group, both with large effect sizes (Cohen's d = 0.89 and 1.04). All 28 children treated achieved normal phonological abilities: 21 before entering school and 7 during first grade. The average number of treatment sessions was 28; the average treatment duration was 11.5 months.

CONCLUSION

IPMSP-aligned therapy is effective in the treatment of SSD and is well adaptable for languages other than German.

Landesweite Normierung des Hessischen Kindersprachscreenings

Zusammenfassung. Das Hessische Kindersprachscreening stellt ein Verfahren zur Feststellung des Sprachstands bei Kindern im Alter von 4;0 bis 4;6 Jahren dar. In der hier vorgestellten Überarbeitung wurden zunächst eine neue kriteriumsorientierte Skalierung und eine neue Normierung an einer flächendeckenden Stichprobe von insgesamt N = 43 556 Kindern aus knapp 900 Kindertageseinrichtungen in Hessen durchgeführt. Berichtet werden neben deskriptiven Item- und Skalenkennwerten auch die Befunde zur Objektivität, zur Reliabilität sowie zur Konstrukt- und faktoriellen Validität, die allesamt sehr zufriedenstellend ausfallen. Anschließend werden die diagnostischen Schwellenwerte (Cut-off-Werte) für die zwei Screeningergebnisse „sprachpädagogischer Förderbedarf“ und „medizinischer Abklärungsbedarf“ bestimmt und die Sensitivität und Spezifität dieser Schwellenwerte betrachtet. Es wird argumentiert, dass mit dem überarbeitetem Kindersprachscreening ein Verfahren vorliegt, dass sich durch insgesamt sehr zufriedenstellende psychometrische Eigenschaften auszeichnet und damit für die Zielsetzung geeignet ist, eine möglichst frühe und zielgerichtete Diagnose sprachlicher Defizite bei Vorschulkindern zu ermöglichen.

[Guideline-conform diagnostics in language impairments]

In order to distinguish more accurately and easily between language difficulties in need of therapy or special support versus language impairments a S2K guideline was developed by interdisciplinary teams of different (medical) societies and professional associations. This guideline was published in 2011 and has replaced all existing monodisciplinary guidelines. According to the new S2K guideline standardised measures of language testing are mandatory. Apart from reviewing the S2K guidelines, this article aims to suggest how these guidelines can be established in clinical practice. By closely following this new guideline, testing and diagnosing children with language difficulties is believed to be enhanced considerably, and also comply with quality management standards.

Neurodevelopmental outcome at 6 years of age after intrauterine laser therapy for twin-twin transfusion syndrome

This study was undertaken to evaluate neurodevelopmental outcome of children at 6 years of age after intrauterine laser therapy for Twin-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS). This is part of a longitudinal study in children after intrauterine laser therapy for TTTS; 190 of 254 (74.8%) children, previously investigated at a median age of 2 years 10 months, were re-evaluated at 6 years 5 months (range 4 years 11 months -10 years 4 months). Sixty-four patients were not examined due to loss of contact. The median gestational age at birth was 34 + 3 weeks. The study included a physical/neurological examination, a standardized neurodevelopmental test (Kaufman-ABC) and/or results from the national screening programme for children as well as questionnaires. Patients were grouped in three outcome categories: group I: normal examination and test result; group II: minor neurological deficiencies and normal test results; group III: major neurological deficiencies and/or test results below minus two standard deviations. The following results were obtained at 6 years 5 months (for comparison, results of the same patients at 2 years 10 months in brackets). Group I: 79.5% (84.2%); group II: 11.6% (8.9%); group III: 8.9% (6.8%). Twenty-one (11%) patients had a worse and 8 (4.2%) an improved classification at 6 years 5 months as compared to 2 years 10 months. Overall, the results with 6 years did not significantly differ from the results with 2 years. Neurodevelopmental outcome at 6 years 5 months was not statistically, significantly different from outcome at 2 years 10 months.