Two Grammatical Tasks for Screening Language Abilities in Spanish-Speaking Children

Abstract

Purpose This study assessed concurrent validity evidence for 2 grammatical tasks of a new screener, the Tamiz de Problemas de Lenguaje, for identifying monolingual Spanish-speaking children at risk for specific language impairment with grammatical deficits. Method A total of 770 4- to 6-year-old monolingual, Spanish-speaking children with and without language impairment were sampled from 3 different states in Mexico. Multiple logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic curve analyses were conducted to assess the predictive utility of the model and the classification accuracy of the tasks. The criterion was diagnosis of specific language impairment with grammatical deficits on the basis of a comprehensive language assessment. Results Results indicated that sensitivity estimates ranged from .90 to .94 and specificity estimates from .83 to .92. Overall, there was a good balance between sensitivity and specificity estimates with moderate to large positive and negative likelihood ratios. Conclusion Results suggested that the 2 grammatical tasks are suitable for identifying 4- to 6-year-old monolingual Spanish-speaking children at risk for grammatical deficits.