Assessing Children’s Native Language in Mandarin Using the Adapted New Reynell Developmental Language Scales-Mandarin (NRDLS-M)

Abstract

Early child language acquisition in Mandarin by Malaysian Chinese children is underexplored. Following the establishment of the first Speech Sciences academic programme at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) in 1994, there is a need to develop language tests to assess children who might be at risk for language disorders and to provide remediation accordingly by professionals such as speech therapists. The present study aims to adapt a contemporary British English test: The New Reynell Developmental Language Scales (NRDLS) to Mandarin. Since NRDLS is widely-used to assess language comprehension and language production, the aim of the present research therefore is to propose adaptation of NRDLS to Mandarin. The present research also aims to provide preliminary norms (age of acquisition for target structures and errors) for the local children. Underlying factors which might influence child language development i.e. age, gender and socio-economic status (maternal education) are also examined. Using a cross-sectional study of 40 children aged 2;00-6;11, the present study aims to describe child language acquisition based on performance of the adapted NRDLS. The present results show that language skills advanced with age. Gender and maternal education do not affect child language development. Overall, children demonstrated a more superior language comprehension than language production. The adapted New Reynell Developmental Language Scales-Mandarin (NDRLS-M) is developmentally sensitive though further revisions are required. The present findings implicate an influence of universality and ambient language effects on acquisition of Mandarin. The present findings also implicate a need to develop a bilingual MandarinEnglish version of NRDLS-M.

Cross-cultural adaptation of the new Reynell developmental language scales to Brazilian Portuguese

“…20 In the pilot study to adapt the NRDLS to Mandarin five children were evaluated. 14 There is no consensus in the literature regarding the size of the sample for the pre-test.…”

“…The time application of the adapted version was approximately 30–40 min, the same time reported by the authors that adapted the NRDLS to Mandarin. 14 According to the National Deaf Children’s Society, the application can take 45–60 min. 21 The test can be done in two sessions in case the child gets tired.…”

“…According to the authors that adapted the NRDLS to Mandarin, the instrument is reliable and validated, evaluates key points in language acquisition and development like vocabulary, use of sentences, verbs, morphology, inference, and grammatical judgement and offers a guide for use of the instrument in other languages. 14 …”

Language abilities and associated risk factors of school-aged children with cleft lip and palate

“…MPLAT is a standardized normed referenced language assessment tool for Malay preschoolers aged 4;0-6;11 years old. This test was chosen because there was no standardized norm-referenced language assessment for Malay school-aged children [30,31] Thus, 25 typically developing school-aged children were recruited as the control group to compare their language scores. Two tests from Razak et al [32] were used to assess reading comprehension and listening comprehension.…”