Measuring Parental Language to Target Families for Early-intervention Services

ABSTRACTPoor language skills can have a negative effect on a developing child if not identified early. Current strategies to identify families with children who may need additional support are limited, and may not detect child language problems before they become entrenched. The present study explores observed indices of parental language as a means of identifying families whose children are at risk of poor outcomes. Fifteen-minute observations of 68 parent–toddler dyads were coded for 11 categories of parent language. Three complex measures were developed; parent prompts, encouraging and critical language. Two simple language indices (parent total words and total different words) were calculated for comparison. Two complex measures evidenced acceptable levels of inter-rater reliability, reasonable stability over time and some construct validity. “Parent prompts” predicted toddler receptive and expressive language six months later. In comparison, the two simple measures were more reliable and stable over ...