The Influence of Sample Length on Reliability of Language Sample Measures for Young Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children

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Presenter(s)

Karlin McGarvey, Morgan Oliver

Abstract or Description

Purpose: This study examines the effects of language sample length on the reliability of five language sample measures for young deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children. The results are expected to inform recommendations for the length of language samples for clinical and research purposes.

Method: Participants included 27 young DHH children. Participants completed a 20-minute language sample with an examiner in a play context. We transcribed and coded the language samples to determine the number of complete and intelligible utterances, mean length of utterance in words (MLUw), MLU in morphemes (MLUm), total number of words, and number of different words. To evaluate reliability of different sample lengths, we calculated Cronbach’s alpha between the full 20-minute sample and 1-, 3-, 7-, 10-, 12-, and 15- minute segments from the beginning and the end of the sample.

Results: Preliminary analyses show that all variables were sufficiently correlated (Cronbach’s alpha >.80) with the full 20-minute sample when coded from segments at least 10 minutes in length from the beginning or end of the sample. MLUw and MLUm sufficiently correlated between the 20-minute sample and all segment lengths, including the 1-minute segments.

Conclusion: Findings support coding 10-minute segments from the play language samples to evaluate the expressive language skills of DHH children. When MLU is the variable of interest, 1-minute segments may be sufficient. Future directions include additional evaluation of different contexts, a larger, more diverse set of participants, and additional language sample variables.

Mentor

Dr. Jena McDaniel