Estimating Familial Loading in SLI: A Comparison of Direct Assessment Versus Parental Interview

TY - JOUR

T1 - Estimating Familial Loading in SLI: A Comparison of Direct Assessment Versus Parental Interview

AU - Conti-Ramsden, G

AU - Simkin, Z

AU - Pickles, A

PY - 2006/2

Y1 - 2006/2

N2 - Purpose: Two approaches commonly used for estimating prevalence a language disorders in families were compared. The 1st involved examining a subset of language items from an investigator-based interview used to record parental information on the language and literacy difficulties in relatives. The 2nd was the direct assessment of ability in immediate family using a battery of standardized verbal ability, language, and literacy assessments.Method: Using these 2 methods, the prevalence of language and literacy disorders was investigated in the immediate family (n = 271) of 93 children with a history of SLI (mean age 13;11 years).Results: The overall proportion of relatives with reported language or literacy difficulty was similar for both methods (34.5% for reported difficulties compared with 35% on direct assessment). The present study further explored maternal, paternal, and sibling prevalence rates and strength of agreement between parental interview and direct assessment. When a low cutoff score was used, good agreement (of true negatives and true positives) for reading and spelling difficulties and expressive language between the 2 types of case identification method was found.Conclusions: Parents can be effective identifiers when the impairment is severe (below 2 SDs from the population mean). Poor agreement was observed between report and assessment of receptive language difficulties.

AB - Purpose: Two approaches commonly used for estimating prevalence a language disorders in families were compared. The 1st involved examining a subset of language items from an investigator-based interview used to record parental information on the language and literacy difficulties in relatives. The 2nd was the direct assessment of ability in immediate family using a battery of standardized verbal ability, language, and literacy assessments.Method: Using these 2 methods, the prevalence of language and literacy disorders was investigated in the immediate family (n = 271) of 93 children with a history of SLI (mean age 13;11 years).Results: The overall proportion of relatives with reported language or literacy difficulty was similar for both methods (34.5% for reported difficulties compared with 35% on direct assessment). The present study further explored maternal, paternal, and sibling prevalence rates and strength of agreement between parental interview and direct assessment. When a low cutoff score was used, good agreement (of true negatives and true positives) for reading and spelling difficulties and expressive language between the 2 types of case identification method was found.Conclusions: Parents can be effective identifiers when the impairment is severe (below 2 SDs from the population mean). Poor agreement was observed between report and assessment of receptive language difficulties.

U2 - 10.1044/1092-4388(2006/007)

DO - 10.1044/1092-4388(2006/007)

M3 - Article

SN - 1092-4388

VL - 49

SP - 88

EP - 101

JO - JOURNAL OF SPEECH LANGUAGE AND HEARING RESEARCH

JF - JOURNAL OF SPEECH LANGUAGE AND HEARING RESEARCH

IS - 1

ER -