Performance de sujeitos falantes do Português e do Inglês no Test of Early Language Development

Abstract

Background: application of an American early language test in Brazilian Portuguese-speaking subjects. Aim: to compare the performance of normal Brazilian Portuguese and American English-speaking subjects on the Test of Early Language Development -Third Edition (TELD-3). Method: participants of this study were 120 subjects of both genders, ranging in age from 2:00 to 7:11 years (20 subjects in each age range). Subjects were selected and tested individually by the researcher. A comparative analysis of the subjects' performances with that observed in English-speaking children was made. Results: the results indicated that Brazilian and American subjects presented similar performances until the age of 4:11 years. Portuguese-speaking children of 5, 6 and 7 years presented higher scores on the receptive subtest of Form A when compared to their American pairs. Portuguese-speaking subjects of 5 and 6 years presented lower scores on the expressive subtest of Form B when compared to their American pairs. Conclusion: the translation of diagnostic instruments that are already available in other languages can lessen the lack of such resources in countries where these instruments are not yet available. Furthermore, this practice can allow cross-cultural studies which are relevant for researches on child language and language disabilities. Key Words: Child Language; Evaluation; Diagnosis; Language Tests. ResumoTema: aplicação de um teste americano de linguagem infantil em sujeitos falantes do Português Brasileiro. Objetivo: comparar a performance de sujeitos normais falantes do Português Brasileiro com os sujeitos falantes do Inglês Americano no Test of Early Language Development -Terceira Edição (TELD-3). Método: participaram deste estudo 120 crianças, com faixa etária de 2:00 a 7:11 anos, sendo 20 sujeitos por faixa etária, de ambos os sexos. Os sujeitos passaram por um processo de seleção e foram testados individualmente pela pesquisadora, em seguida foi realizada uma análise comparativa entre a performance dos falantes do Português e os falantes do Inglês. Resultados: os resultados indicaram que a performance dos sujeitos foi equivalente para a idade até 4:11 anos. Para 5, 6 e 7 anos no subteste receptivo da forma A, os sujeitos falantes do Português obtiveram pontuação mais alta do que a apresentada na referência americana. E para as faixas etárias de 5 e 6 anos no subteste expressivo, na forma B, a pontuação dos sujeitos falantes do Português foi menor do que a observada na referência americana. Conclusão: a tradução de instrumentos diagnósticos já disponíveis em outras línguas pode amenizar a carência em países que não dispõem destes recursos e, além disso, pode possibilitar estudos transculturais viabilizando a comparação dos achados das pesquisas nacionais com os das pesquisas internacionais, o que é bastante relevante para os estudos da linguagem na infância e dos quadros de alterações.

Cross-cultural adaptation of Preschool Language Assessment Instrument: Second Edition

“…This practice is still relatively recent in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, especially in the field of language. Although the process is long and complex, it was an alternative found by many researchers from different fields in the search for procedures that provide the professional with data guided by an objective assessment of language (5)(6)(7)(8) . In Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, there is still a gap, which prompted researchers that are concerned with filling it, such as in this study.…”

“…Adaptations had to respec the grammatical rules of Brazilian Portuguese and consider sociocultural factors and age group. Adaptations of this nature are common in studies requiring cross-cultural adaptation of language evaluation tests, showing similar challenges when translating words or phrases from one language to another (5,8,21) . The results obtained in the pretest indicated that the Brazilian version of PLAI-2 allows the discrimination of the performance of participants from three age groups 3-, 4-and 5 year olds, and it was observed that the mean and median raw scores (reception and expression) tend to increase with age (3-years-old >4-years-old >5-years-old).…”

“…The use of standardized procedures, to directly assess the performance of a child, offers some advantages over inventories and scales to be completed by parents or teachers, which, although important as part of the evaluation process, do not allow expert analysis (3) . In clinical practice, and especially in research on language, standardized instruments have been increasingly used as aids in the evaluation of different components of language (4)(5)(6)(7)(8) .…”

Uso de substantivos e verbos por pré-escolares com alteração específica de linguagem

“…Inclusion criteria comprised performance in expressive language below expectations in at least two standardized tests: vocabulary (21) , speech-language pathology (22) , or mean length of utterance (MLU) (4) , as well as receptive and/or expressive language age below chronological age based on the third edition of the Test of Early Language Development (TELD-3) (23) adapted to Brazilian Portuguese (24) . It should be noted that, due to age range, it was not possible to conduct the Non-verbal Intelligence Test (Non-verbal IQ), thus children with altered neuropsychomotor development history (delay greater than six months in relation to the expected in typical development to sit, walk, and control the head and sphincters) were not included.…”

Language assessment of children with severe liver disease in a public service in Brazil

“…By their sixth birthday, children are able to tell and retell stories and events in a logical order and are able to express ideas using a great variety of complete sentences. Finally, when children reach seven years, they can use oral language to inform, persuade, and entertain 13,14.…”