Logopedics, Vol. 5 No. 2, 2015.
Original scientific paper
Parental assessment of speech and language development for children older than three years
Darija Novosel
; Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Edukacijsko-rehabilitacijski fakultet, Odsjek za logopediju, Laboratorij za psiholingvistička istraživanja
Manuela Pilatuš
; Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Edukacijsko-rehabilitacijski fakultet, Odsjek za logopediju, Laboratorij za psiholingvistička istraživanja
Marina Olujić
; Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Edukacijsko-rehabilitacijski fakultet, Odsjek za logopediju, Laboratorij za psiholingvistička istraživanja
Jelena Kuvač Kraljević
; Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Edukacijsko-rehabilitacijski fakultet, Odsjek za logopediju, Laboratorij za psiholingvistička istraživanja
Abstract
Speech-language pathologists play an important role in the assessment of a child`s speech, language and communication abilities. However, parent reports of their own children's language are also very important. Numerous studies have demonstrated that parents, especially mothers, are a very reliable source of information about their children's language development. In fact, parents can observe behavior that occurs rarely and that is often nearly invisible in a formal setting. To date, most studies of parental assessment have focused on the assessment of children younger than three years of age. The main aim of this study was to investigate parental ability to assess speech and language behavior of children older than three years. The influence of child and parent gender and parental education on the accuracy of the assessment was also assessed. The study sample consisted of 364 parents of children with typical language development at the age of three, four and five years. All parents completed a questionnaire about the speech and language behavior of their children. Three different questionnaire forms were created, one for each age group. All three questionnaires consisted of items related to the assessment of pronunciation and speech intelligibility, phonological, morphosyntactic, semantic, and pragmatic language abilities and language knowledge, or metalanguage. The results suggest that parents can observe all forms of speech and language behavior included in the research. The parents of the youngest children (age 3) mostly observed changes in the morphosyntactic and pragmatic skills of their children, while parents of 4-year-old children most frequently observed changes in semantic features. Parents of the oldest children in this study (age 5) mainly observed the metalanguage skills of their children. The educational level of parents` influences parental assessment only in cases when children were in the core of the assessment at the age of three or four years.
Keywords
parental assessment; language development; metalanguage; education level; gender
Hrčak ID:
150403
URI
Publication date:
30.12.2015.
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