The study examined the typical development of early literacy in a group of typically developing preschool Sepedi first language children residing in Atteridgeville, by determining their performance on a protocol of early literacy tasks. The following aspects were included: written language awareness, narrative abilities, phonological awareness, letter name knowledge, grapheme-phoneme correspondence and literacy motivation. The performance of the participants on the various tasks was used to describe the early literacy development of the target population and to identify relevant risk criteria that may indicate delayed early literacy development in the target population. The performance of participants on these tasks differed from those of other participants in local and international studies, which underscores the necessity of culturally sensitive procedures for identifying delays in the early literacy development of children. The influence of factors such as the mother’s level of education, gender, participants’ level of engagement in literacy activities and participants' current academic performance on the development of early literacy skills were also investigated. Based on the results as well as other indications from the literature, possible risk factors for delayed early literacy development for this group are listed. / Dissertation (M (Communication Pathology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology / unrestricted

ABSTRACT In standardized tests, culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) children usually perform at similar level as children with language impairment (LI), largely due to the fact that most standardized assessment tools have been developed on the basis of a monolingual population with mainstream backgrounds. As an alternative to standardized tests, a dynamic assessment approach has been advocated to assess the language abilities of CLD children. Dynamic assessment is considered to reduce test bias, since it measures the child's learning potential (i.e. modifiability) instead of the child's static performance on a certain task at one point in time. The aim of the present study was to explore if dynamic assessment was as successful in a Swedish context as it has been in American contexts. The study had a test-teach-retest design with every session conducted individually. Five typically developing monolingual Swedish children, aged six to seven, were asked to tell two stories on the basis of two comparable picture sequences. In between, a teaching session, that consisted of a mediated learning experience (MLE), was conducted. During the MLE session, a certain aspect of storytelling, chosen from the analysis of the test narrative, was targeted and 5 trained. After the MLE session, the child's modifiability was measured using five-point scales for teaching effort and student responsiveness. The test and retest results were then compared. The DA results indicated that three of the children were typically developing and that two of the children, contrary to fact, had some kind of language learning disability. The material used was found to have limitations in its narrow rating criteria and complicated scripts for the MLE sessions. The conclusions were that (a) the assessment was influenced by the examiner's subjective rating and therefore unable to show the children's true narrative abilities, (b) that the MLE material was not fully suited for younger school aged children and (c) not suitable in the Swedish context. Further studies have to be made with a larger number of children, including CLD children, to be able to tell whether dynamic assessment is a suitable method in Swedish contexts or not. A special DA material for Swedish assessments would then be useful. / Typiskt utvecklade barn med atypisk kulturell bakgrund, flerspråkighet eller låg socioekonomisk status (dvs. barn med språkskillnad) som genomgår språktestning med standardiserade tester förefaller prestera lika på dessa som barn med språkstörning. Detta pga. att de flesta standardiserade tester är skapade för enspråkiga barn med typisk bakgrund. Barnen med språkskillnad riskerar således att bli feldiagnostiserade med språkstörning. Dynamic assessment (DA) har i främst amerikanska studier visat sig vara en fördelaktig bedömningsmetod vid sådana fall, då den har lyckats särskilja barn med språkskillnad från barn med språkstörning. Detta eftersom DA, till skillnad från standardiserade tester, inte undersöker barnets förmåga att klara en viss uppgift vid ett tillfälle, utan istället undersöker barnets förmåga att lära sig att klara av en uppgift (dvs. barnets modifierbarhet). Föreliggande studie avsåg att undersöka hur DA av narrativ förmåga fungerade med svenskspråkiga typiskt utvecklade barn i åldern sex-sju år. Deltagarna genomgick individuell DA med test-teach-retest-design och fick först berätta en saga till en bildsekvens. En aspekt av narrativ förmåga, t.ex. kausalitet, valdes sedan ut och tränades vid en undervisningssession som utgjordes av en så kallad mediated learning experience (MLE). Barnets modifierbarhet under MLE skattades med hjälp av femgradiga skalor för läraransträngning och barnets responsivitet. Därefter följde retest, där varje barn fick berätta en saga till en ny bildsekvens. En jämförelse mellan test och retest skedde. Resultaten visade att tre av deltagarna fick de resultat som förväntats av barn med typisk utveckling. Två deltagare fick resultat som indikerade språkstörning. Materialet som användes bedömdes ha snävt satta bedömningskriterier och svåranvända skript för undervisningssessionerna. Slutsatserna som drogs var (a) att DA-materialet som användes gav en mycket subjektiv bedömning som inte stämde överens med barnets faktiska narrativa förmåga, (b) att MLE-skripten inte var designade på ett helt barnvänligt sätt och (c) inte passade i svensk kontext. Fler och större studier behöver göras för att kunna ge en tydligare bild av hur DA fungerar i svensk kontext. I detta fall vore ett svenskt DA-material önskvärt.