The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of teacher ratings for screening childrens language skills. Teacher ratings were measured through the use of two tools, the Childrens Communication Checklist-2 (CCC-2; Bishop, 2006) and the Teacher Rating of Oral Language and Literacy (TROLL; Dickinson, McCabe, & Sprague, 2001). The data for this study were from 77 kindergarteners who lived in rural Louisiana and spoke a non-mainstream dialect of English; 51 were classified as typically developing and 26 as presenting with Specific Language Impairment. Convergent validity was examined by comparing the two teacher rating tools to each other and to three language and literacy screeners. Predictive validity was examined by comparing the teacher rating tools to the Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation: Norm Referenced (Seymour, Roeper, & de Villiers, 2005).
Although some results supported the convergent and predictive validity of the teacher ratings as measured by the two tools, neither tool nor the other screeners accurately identified a sufficient number of children with SLI. When empirically-derived cut scores for each screener were utilized, accuracy of the teacher ratings improved, and a discriminant function analysis with empirically-derived cut scores selected the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test 4 (PPVT-4; Dunn & Dunn, 2007) and TROLL as the best tools to utilize in combination for screening purposes. This combination of tools accounted for 73% of the variation in the childrens DELV-NR scores. However, the PPVT-4 by itself was just as accurate as the PPVT-4 and TROLL together, with 95% of the children accurately screened (Sensitivity = .88; Specificity = .98).
For screening purposes, these findings support the use of teacher ratings as measured by the TROLL when empirically-derived cut scores are used and when the TROLL is combined with the PPVT-4.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-11102015-134533 |
| Date | 07 December 2015 |
| Creators | Gregory, Kyomi Dana |
| Contributors | Oetting, Janna, Norris, Janet, Chaney, Cassandra, Benfield, Mark |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-11102015-134533/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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