TY - JOUR
T1 - Performance of low-income dual language learners attending english-only schools on the clinical evaluation of language fundamentals–fourth edition, Spanish
AU - Barragan, Beatriz
AU - Castilla-Earls, Anny
AU - Martinez-Nieto, Lourdes
AU - Restrepo, Maria
AU - Gray, Shelley
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was funded by Grant IES R324A080024 (awarded to Maria Adelaida Restrepo, Joanna S. Gorin, and Shelley Gray) and National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Grant R15DC013670 (awarded to Anny Castilla-Earls). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health or the U.S. Department of Education. The authors thank the schools, teachers, children, and parents who participated in this project.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
PY - 2018/4
Y1 - 2018/4
N2 - Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine the performance of a group of Spanish-speaking, dual language learners (DLLs) who were attending English-only schools and came from low-income and low-parental education backgrounds on the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals–Fourth Edition, Spanish (CELF-4S; Semel, Wiig, & Secord, 2006). Method: Spanish-speaking DLLs (N = 656), ages 5;0 (years; months) to 7;11, were tested for language impairment (LI) using the core language score of the CELF-4S and the English Structured Photographic Expressive Language Test (Dawson, Stout, & Eyer, 2003). A subsample (n = 299) was additionally tested using a Spanish language sample analysis and a newly developed Spanish morphosyntactic measure, for identification of children with LI and to conduct a receiver operating characteristics curve analysis. Results: Over 50% of the sample scored more than 1 SD below the mean on the core language score. In our subsample, the sensitivity of the CELF-4S was 94%, and specificity was 65%, using a cutoff score of 85 as suggested in the manual. Using an empirically derived cutoff score of 78, the sensitivity was 86%, and the specificity was 80%. Conclusions: Results suggest that the CELF-4S overidentifies low-income Spanish–English DLLs attending English-only schools as presenting with LI. For this sample, 1 in every 3 Latino children from low socioeconomic status was incorrectly identified with LI. Clinicians should be cautious when using the CELF-4S to evaluate low-income Spanish–English DLLs and ensure that they have converging evidence before making diagnostic decisions.
AB - Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine the performance of a group of Spanish-speaking, dual language learners (DLLs) who were attending English-only schools and came from low-income and low-parental education backgrounds on the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals–Fourth Edition, Spanish (CELF-4S; Semel, Wiig, & Secord, 2006). Method: Spanish-speaking DLLs (N = 656), ages 5;0 (years; months) to 7;11, were tested for language impairment (LI) using the core language score of the CELF-4S and the English Structured Photographic Expressive Language Test (Dawson, Stout, & Eyer, 2003). A subsample (n = 299) was additionally tested using a Spanish language sample analysis and a newly developed Spanish morphosyntactic measure, for identification of children with LI and to conduct a receiver operating characteristics curve analysis. Results: Over 50% of the sample scored more than 1 SD below the mean on the core language score. In our subsample, the sensitivity of the CELF-4S was 94%, and specificity was 65%, using a cutoff score of 85 as suggested in the manual. Using an empirically derived cutoff score of 78, the sensitivity was 86%, and the specificity was 80%. Conclusions: Results suggest that the CELF-4S overidentifies low-income Spanish–English DLLs attending English-only schools as presenting with LI. For this sample, 1 in every 3 Latino children from low socioeconomic status was incorrectly identified with LI. Clinicians should be cautious when using the CELF-4S to evaluate low-income Spanish–English DLLs and ensure that they have converging evidence before making diagnostic decisions.
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U2 - 10.1044/2017_LSHSS-17-0013
DO - 10.1044/2017_LSHSS-17-0013
M3 - Article
C2 - 29330555
AN - SCOPUS:85045100193
SN - 0161-1461
VL - 49
SP - 292
EP - 305
JO - Language, speech, and hearing services in schools
JF - Language, speech, and hearing services in schools
IS - 2
ER -