Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2022 May 11;65(5):1939-1955. doi: 10.1044/2022_JSLHR-21-00628. Epub 2022 Apr 8.
Language sample analysis (LSA) represents an ecologically valid method for diagnosing, identifying goals, and measuring progress in children with developmental language disorder (DLD). LSA is, however, time consuming. The purpose of this study was to determine the length of sample needed to obtain reliable LSA measures for children in kindergarten and first grade with typical language (TL) and DLD using automated analyses from the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts software.
Play-based conversational language samples collected on kindergarten to first-grade children with TL ( = 21) and DLD ( = 21) from a community-based sample were analyzed. Eight LSA measures were calculated from 1-, 3-, 5-, 7-, and 10-min sample cuts and compared to 20-min samples for reliability.
Reliability estimates were similar for the TL and DLD groups except for errors and omissions, which showed overall higher levels of reliability in the DLD group and reached acceptable levels at 3 min. Percent grammatical utterances were reliable at 7 min in the DLD group and not reliable in shorter samples in the TL group. The subordination index was reliable at 10 min for both groups. Number of different words reached acceptable reliability at the 3-min length for the DLD group and at the 10-min length for the TL group. Utterances and words per minute were reliable at 3 min and mean length of utterance at 7 min in both groups.
Speech-language pathologists can obtain reliable LSA measures from shorter, 7-min conversational language samples from kindergarten to first-grade children with DLD. Shorter language samples may encourage increased use of LSA.
语言样本分析（LSA）代表了一种生态有效的方法，可用于诊断、确定目标和衡量发育性语言障碍（DLD）儿童的进展。然而，LSA 非常耗时。本研究的目的是确定使用来自 Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts 软件的自动分析，从幼儿园到一年级具有典型语言（TL）和 DLD 的儿童中获得可靠的 LSA 测量所需的样本长度。
从基于社区的样本中收集了幼儿园到一年级具有 TL（n=21）和 DLD（n=21）的儿童的基于游戏的会话语言样本，并对其进行了分析。从 1 分钟、3 分钟、5 分钟、7 分钟和 10 分钟的样本中计算了 8 个 LSA 测量值，并与 20 分钟样本的可靠性进行了比较。
TL 和 DLD 组的可靠性估计值相似，除了错误和遗漏，DLD 组的总体可靠性更高，在 3 分钟时达到了可接受的水平。DLD 组的语法句子百分比在 7 分钟时可靠，在 TL 组的较短样本中不可靠。从属索引在两组中均在 10 分钟时可靠。不同单词的数量在 DLD 组的 3 分钟长度和 TL 组的 10 分钟长度上达到了可接受的可靠性。话语和每分钟单词数在 3 分钟时可靠，平均话语长度在两组中均在 7 分钟时可靠。
言语语言病理学家可以从 DLD 幼儿园到一年级的儿童中获得更短的、7 分钟的会话语言样本的可靠 LSA 测量值。较短的语言样本可能会鼓励更多地使用 LSA。
