Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of South Carolina, Columbia.
Faculty of Education, Okanagan School of Education, The University of British Columbia, Kelowna, Canada.
Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch. 2022 Apr 11;53(2):431-444. doi: 10.1044/2021_LSHSS-21-00080. Epub 2022 Feb 15.
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between parent concerns about children's oral language, reading, and related skills and their children's performance on standardized assessments of language and reading, with a particular focus on whether those relationships differed between children recruited for in-school versus online participation.
This study used data from a larger, longitudinal project focused on children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD) and/or dyslexia. The "in-school" sample ( = 133) completed assessments in-person before school closures, and the "online" sample ( = 84) recruited via advertisements completed assessments online. Parents completed a checklist of concerns. All children completed norm-referenced assessments of language and reading.
The two recruitment strategies yielded samples that differed in racial diversity (higher in the in-school sample), caregiver education levels (higher in the online sample), and word reading test scores (higher in the online sample). Parents in both samples reported higher levels of concerns about literacy skills than oral language skills, and the correlation between parent concerns about literacy and children's word reading test scores was stronger than the correlation between parent concerns about oral language and children's language test scores.
Researchers and clinicians should be aware of how recruitment strategies and assessment modalities (e.g., in-person vs. tele-assessment) may impact participation in studies and clinical service. A reliance on parent concerns about oral language to prompt a language evaluation may contribute to low rates of identification of children who meet criteria for DLD. Future research can consider parent concerns about literacy, attention, and executive functions as indicators of a need for language evaluation, especially considering the high comorbidity between language and other developmental disorders.
本研究旨在考察家长对子女口语、阅读和相关技能的关注与其子女在语言和阅读标准化评估中的表现之间的关系，特别关注这些关系在校内和在线参与儿童之间是否存在差异。
本研究使用了一项针对有和无发育性语言障碍（DLD）和/或阅读障碍儿童的更大、纵向项目的数据。“校内”样本（n=133）在学校关闭前进行了面对面评估，而通过广告招募的“在线”样本（n=84）则在线完成了评估。家长完成了一份关注事项清单。所有儿童都完成了语言和阅读的常模参照评估。
两种招募策略产生的样本在种族多样性（校内样本更高）、照顾者教育水平（在线样本更高）和单词阅读测试分数（在线样本更高）方面存在差异。两个样本的家长都报告称对读写技能的关注程度高于口语技能，家长对读写的关注与儿童单词阅读测试分数之间的相关性强于家长对口语的关注与儿童语言测试分数之间的相关性。
研究人员和临床医生应该意识到招募策略和评估方式（例如，面对面评估与远程评估）可能会影响研究和临床服务的参与度。仅仅依靠家长对口语的关注来提示语言评估可能会导致符合 DLD 标准的儿童识别率较低。未来的研究可以考虑家长对读写、注意力和执行功能的关注作为语言评估需求的指标，尤其是考虑到语言和其他发育障碍之间的高共病性。
