Narrative assessment for cantonese-speaking children

Background: This study examined the narrative skills of Cantonese-speaking school-age children to fill a need for a normative language test for school-age children. Purpose: To provide a benchmark of the narrative skills of Cantonese-speaking children; to identify which of the microstructure compone...

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Main Authors: To, C., Stokes, Stephanie, Cheung, H., T'sou, B.
Format: Journal Article
Published: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association 2010
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/7435
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author To, C.
Stokes, Stephanie
Cheung, H.
T'sou, B.
author_facet To, C.
Stokes, Stephanie
Cheung, H.
T'sou, B.
author_sort To, C.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Background: This study examined the narrative skills of Cantonese-speaking school-age children to fill a need for a normative language test for school-age children. Purpose: To provide a benchmark of the narrative skills of Cantonese-speaking children; to identify which of the microstructure components was the best predictor of age; and to determine the diagnostic accuracy of the test components. Method and Procedure: Data were collected from 1,120 Cantonese-speaking children between the ages of 4;10 (years;months) and 12;01, using a story-retell of a 24-frame picture series. Four narrative components (syntactic complexity, semantic score, referencing, and connective use) were measured. Outcomes and Results: Each measure reflected significant age-related differences in narrative ability. Regression analyses revealed that vocabulary and syntactic complexity were the best predictors of grade. All measures showed high sensitivity (86%–94%) but relatively low specificity (60%–90%) and modest likelihood ratio (LR) values: LR+ (2.15–9.42) and LR– (0.07–0.34).Conclusion and Implications: Narrative assessment can be standardized to be a reliable and valid instrument to assist in the identification of children with language impairment. Syntactic complexity is not only a strong predictor of grade but was also particularly vulnerable in Cantonese-speaking children with specific language impairment. Further diagnostic research using narrative analysis is warranted.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-74352017-09-13T16:02:17Z Narrative assessment for cantonese-speaking children To, C. Stokes, Stephanie Cheung, H. T'sou, B. school-age children Cantonese narrative assessment Background: This study examined the narrative skills of Cantonese-speaking school-age children to fill a need for a normative language test for school-age children. Purpose: To provide a benchmark of the narrative skills of Cantonese-speaking children; to identify which of the microstructure components was the best predictor of age; and to determine the diagnostic accuracy of the test components. Method and Procedure: Data were collected from 1,120 Cantonese-speaking children between the ages of 4;10 (years;months) and 12;01, using a story-retell of a 24-frame picture series. Four narrative components (syntactic complexity, semantic score, referencing, and connective use) were measured. Outcomes and Results: Each measure reflected significant age-related differences in narrative ability. Regression analyses revealed that vocabulary and syntactic complexity were the best predictors of grade. All measures showed high sensitivity (86%–94%) but relatively low specificity (60%–90%) and modest likelihood ratio (LR) values: LR+ (2.15–9.42) and LR– (0.07–0.34).Conclusion and Implications: Narrative assessment can be standardized to be a reliable and valid instrument to assist in the identification of children with language impairment. Syntactic complexity is not only a strong predictor of grade but was also particularly vulnerable in Cantonese-speaking children with specific language impairment. Further diagnostic research using narrative analysis is warranted. 2010 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/7435 10.1044/1092-4388(2009/08-0039) American Speech-Language-Hearing Association restricted
spellingShingle school-age children
Cantonese
narrative
assessment
To, C.
Stokes, Stephanie
Cheung, H.
T'sou, B.
Narrative assessment for cantonese-speaking children
title Narrative assessment for cantonese-speaking children
title_full Narrative assessment for cantonese-speaking children
title_fullStr Narrative assessment for cantonese-speaking children
title_full_unstemmed Narrative assessment for cantonese-speaking children
title_short Narrative assessment for cantonese-speaking children
title_sort narrative assessment for cantonese-speaking children
topic school-age children
Cantonese
narrative
assessment
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/7435