A Multiyear Population-Based Study of Kindergarten Language Screening Failure Rates Using the Rice Wexler Test of Early Grammatical Impairment

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate, over 2 separate school years, the school-district-wide failure rate of kindergartners on a screener of grammatical tense marking—the Rice Wexler Test of Early Grammatical Impairment (TEGI) Screening Test (Rice & Wexler, 2001)—composed of past tense (PT) and third-person singular (3S) probes. Method In the fall of 2 consecutive school years, consented and eligible kindergartners ( n = 148 in Year 1, n = 126 in Year 2) in a rural southern school district were administered the TEGI Screening Test. Children who failed the screening test or either of the individual probes (PT or 3S) were administered the Primary Test of Nonverbal Intelligence. All children also completed the Test of Articulation Performance–Screen (Bryant & Bryant, 1983) and, in Year 2, the Get Ready to Read! emergent literacy screener (Whitehurst & Lonigan, 2001). Results The screening tool outcome most closely and consistently aligned with the recommended failure rate of approximately 30% (Oetting, Gregory, & Rivière, 2016; based on Tomblin et al., 1997) was the TEGI PT probe. TEGI Screening Test and 3S probe failure rates fell below the recommended level. Most children who failed the PT probe demonstrated nonverbal intelligence skills within the average range. In addition, most children who failed the PT probe would not have been readily identified on the basis of only the results of their articulation or emergent literacy screenings. Conclusions The TEGI PT probe is an efficient and reliable screener that identifies children for monitoring or additional language assessment. Children with language vulnerabilities are not necessarily identified by articulation or emergent literacy screenings at entry to kindergarten. To identify children at risk for language impairment, it is therefore necessary to directly screen oral language.