Final Report Summary - CDMCP (Communication disorders in the Maltese child population)
Around 10 % of children, with no other developmental problems, fail to acquire adequate speech and language skills by the time they begin school. Thus speech and language therapists need assessments which will accurately identify these children. No standardised currently exist in the Maltese language.
The aim of this study was to analyse language samples from a large group of typically developing children living in Malta, utilise the results from already analysed speech tests and analyse the results from 150 children with disordered speech. A novel feature of the data collected was that children were able to respond to test stimuli using either Maltese or English. The outcomes were to include the following:
- To publish two assessment batteries, one for speech and one for language with detailed manuals and standardisation information.
- To compare children with and without disordered speech using the MESA.
- To establish whether these tests are appropriate for the bilingual situation in Malta.
- To examine whether there are differences in monolingual and bilingual language development.
Maltese English speech assessment (articulation, phonology, inconsistency and oro-motor tests)
The children with impaired speech performed significantly worse on all measures except the oro-motor sub-test. The manual was written including example profiles for clinical data to aid clinicians in differential diagnosis. Z-scores, standard scores and percentiles were given for all subtests as well as qualitative norms on developmental error patters.
Language assessment for Maltese children (receptive, expressive, sentence imitation and phonological awareness tests)
Data for these tests were analysed for 235 normally developing children. For the expressive test, we used data from just 121 children, for whom the responses had been recorded. All these samples were transcribed and re-scored with an improved scoring method. Like the MESA LAMC results demonstrated a developmental trajectory. The manual was written, including z-scores, standard scores and percentiles and qualitative developmental information was given for morphology, syntax and semantics.
Theoretical findings from normal data collection
Both tests were novel in design in being bilingual. This reflects language use in bilingual populations where there is increasing evidence of the extent to which people mix languages, and where words are borrowed across languages. Both assessments worked well in this respect and as suspected, many children did use both languages, even those who were described as monolingual Maltese.
However, the developmental norms differed somewhat depending on whether the children were strongly bilingual or monolingual, which necessitated different norms being developed for the two populations. This data also spoke to the controversial issue of whether being bilingual hindered or improved language development. Speech development did appear to be affected by language status (for example, bilingual children demonstrated fewer developmental error processes) but language development did not.
Strong positive correlations between the language tests and sentence imitation established that the sentence imitation sub-test would be a good screener for language ability. Sentence imitation did not, however, correlate significantly with the speech tests, so this relationship is not just one of maturation but is specific to language as oppose to speech.
Both assessments are now in production. They are well standardised and allow therapists in Malta to establish whether children have impaired speech and/or language. Both the MESA and the LAMC allow the therapist to assess children in Maltese and/or English which both reflects language usage and is time efficient. It will also be useful for the many emigrant Maltese populations throughout the world. This is the first demonstration of such a truly bilingual test and will be a blueprint for others. Using clinical data the MESA is able to provide information to differentially diagnose different types of speech disorder.
The carefully transcribed narrative data from the expressive language test provides an important database for further analysis of the way that the Maltese language develops.
Analysis of the results collected on this large population contribute to the debate on whether learning more than one language hinders or enhances language development, suggesting that bilingual acquisition is at least as good as (and possibly sometimes better) than monolingual.
The aim of this study was to analyse language samples from a large group of typically developing children living in Malta, utilise the results from already analysed speech tests and analyse the results from 150 children with disordered speech. A novel feature of the data collected was that children were able to respond to test stimuli using either Maltese or English. The outcomes were to include the following:
- To publish two assessment batteries, one for speech and one for language with detailed manuals and standardisation information.
- To compare children with and without disordered speech using the MESA.
- To establish whether these tests are appropriate for the bilingual situation in Malta.
- To examine whether there are differences in monolingual and bilingual language development.
Maltese English speech assessment (articulation, phonology, inconsistency and oro-motor tests)
The children with impaired speech performed significantly worse on all measures except the oro-motor sub-test. The manual was written including example profiles for clinical data to aid clinicians in differential diagnosis. Z-scores, standard scores and percentiles were given for all subtests as well as qualitative norms on developmental error patters.
Language assessment for Maltese children (receptive, expressive, sentence imitation and phonological awareness tests)
Data for these tests were analysed for 235 normally developing children. For the expressive test, we used data from just 121 children, for whom the responses had been recorded. All these samples were transcribed and re-scored with an improved scoring method. Like the MESA LAMC results demonstrated a developmental trajectory. The manual was written, including z-scores, standard scores and percentiles and qualitative developmental information was given for morphology, syntax and semantics.
Theoretical findings from normal data collection
Both tests were novel in design in being bilingual. This reflects language use in bilingual populations where there is increasing evidence of the extent to which people mix languages, and where words are borrowed across languages. Both assessments worked well in this respect and as suspected, many children did use both languages, even those who were described as monolingual Maltese.
However, the developmental norms differed somewhat depending on whether the children were strongly bilingual or monolingual, which necessitated different norms being developed for the two populations. This data also spoke to the controversial issue of whether being bilingual hindered or improved language development. Speech development did appear to be affected by language status (for example, bilingual children demonstrated fewer developmental error processes) but language development did not.
Strong positive correlations between the language tests and sentence imitation established that the sentence imitation sub-test would be a good screener for language ability. Sentence imitation did not, however, correlate significantly with the speech tests, so this relationship is not just one of maturation but is specific to language as oppose to speech.
Both assessments are now in production. They are well standardised and allow therapists in Malta to establish whether children have impaired speech and/or language. Both the MESA and the LAMC allow the therapist to assess children in Maltese and/or English which both reflects language usage and is time efficient. It will also be useful for the many emigrant Maltese populations throughout the world. This is the first demonstration of such a truly bilingual test and will be a blueprint for others. Using clinical data the MESA is able to provide information to differentially diagnose different types of speech disorder.
The carefully transcribed narrative data from the expressive language test provides an important database for further analysis of the way that the Maltese language develops.
Analysis of the results collected on this large population contribute to the debate on whether learning more than one language hinders or enhances language development, suggesting that bilingual acquisition is at least as good as (and possibly sometimes better) than monolingual.