Index of Productive Syntax for Children Who Speak African American English

Abstract

Purpose The validity of the Index of Productive Syntax (IPSyn; Scarborough, 1990) for children who speak African American English (AAE) was evaluated by conducting an item analysis and a comparison of the children’s scores as a function of their maternal education level, nonmainstream dialect density, age, and clinical status. Method The data were language samples from 62 children; 52 of the children were between the ages of 4 and 6 years and were classified as developing typically, and 10 were 6 years old with specific language impairment (SLI). Results All IPSyn items were produced by at least 1 child, and 88% of the items were produced by 50% or more of the children. The children’s IPSyn scores were unrelated to maternal education level and dialect density and were visually comparable to IPSyn scores reported for children who speak mainstream English. Nevertheless, IPSyn could not be used to detect differences between the 4- to 6-year-olds based on age, nor could it be used to detect differences between the 6-year-olds with and without SLI. Conclusion IPSyn is a valid measure for AAE speakers, but it can be insensitive to age and clinical differences between children who are over the age of 48 months.

Growth of Expressive Syntax in Children With Fragile X Syndrome

“…In addition, the IPSyn itself may have limits to the range of interpretation. For example, Oetting et al (2010) reported that the developmental changes in IPSyn plateau after the age of 4 years in children without intellectual disability. Future research needs to better examine the sensitivity of the index with older individuals whose language may be similar to younger children.…”

“…The index was originally developed for children between the ages of 24 and 48 months, although it has been used beyond that age range (Hewitt et al, 2005;Oetting et al, 2010;Rescorla & Turner, 2015). The usefulness of the IPSyn as a measure of expressive syntactic abilities in TD children and various clinical populations has been shown in several studies (Price et al, 2008;Rescorla et al, 2000;Rescorla & Turner, 2015;Roberts et al, 2007;Scarborough et al, 1991).…”

Seeking a Valid Gold Standard for an Innovative, Dialect-Neutral Language Test

“…Although the IPSyn (Scarborough, 1990) appears to have limited diagnostic value for 6-year-olds, who are older than the age range for which it was designed (Oetting et al, 2010), we included the Sentence Structure subscale to help confirm that our protocol was successful in eliciting a broad range of syntactic forms.…”

Examining the Use of Spoken Dialect Indices With African American Children in the Southern United States

“…As Green (2011) noted, quantitative features-based approaches, although limited in their ability to describe qualitative aspects of NMAE, have been useful for diagnostic purposes of verifying participant use of certain NMAE forms that may, because of differences in morphosyntax, overidentify children as having a language impairment (e.g., Oetting et al, 2009;Seymour, Bland-Stewart, & Green, 1998;Stockman, Guillory, Siebert, & Bolt, 2013), and for examining typical and atypical language behaviors in different subgroups of NMAE speakers (e.g., Apel & Thomas-Tate, 2009;Horton-Ikard, 2010;Oetting & Garrity, 2006). In addition, each of the above measures have been used fairly recently for empirical investigations concerned with the following three areas: (a) quantifying spoken production of NMAE, (b) determining whether style shifting (movement from NMAE to Mainstream American English [MAE]) is occurring in the spoken language production of children as they grow older or perform different tasks, and (c) understanding the relationship between spoken NMAE and literacy outcomes (e.g., Champion, Rosa-Lugo, Rivers, & McCabe, 2010;Terry, Connor, Petscher, & Conlin, 2012;Thompson, Craig, & Washington, 2004).…”