The use of a standardized language assessment tool to measure the language development of urban Aboriginal preschoolers

Abstract

The use of standardized language assessment tools with Australian Indigenous children has been criticized for language and cultural reasons; however, this has not been tested in an urban context. The aim of the study was to explore the language performance of a small sample of urban Aboriginal preschoolers on a standardized language tool compared with a conversational sample. Fifteen participants (drawn from a birth cohort study of over 150 Aboriginal infants born at a metropolitan hospital) completed the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals–Preschool Edition, Second Edition (CELF-P2) and generated a 30-minute conversational language sample. Descriptive data are reported, and five case studies are explored in detail to compare results of the CELF-P2 and the language sample analysis. Grammatical features of Aboriginal English are also investigated. There was a diverse range of responses to standardized assessment and language sampling, with some samples reflective of CELF-P2 results. Two or more grammatical features of Aboriginal English were identified in 13 of the language samples. The results suggest the CELF-P2 is an appropriate tool to use to assess the language development of the children in the study when used in conjunction with analysis of language samples obtained using culturally appropriate methods.

Keywords::

• Indigenous children
• speech-language development
• CELF-P2
• assessment
• Indigenous
• language

Note

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge and thank the Tharawal people of south western Sydney for their encouragement and enthusiastic support of this research; the Tharawal Aboriginal Corporation; South Western Sydney and Sydney Local Health Districts; Community Health Fairfield Speech Pathology; the University of New South Wales; Kate Short; Anna McIlwaine; Abbey Michell; the project officers Jane Anderson and Natasha West, and the Gudaga mothers and children who participated in the study.

Declaration of Interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Funding to support the research was received from the National Health and Medical Research Council and South West Sydney Local Health District.

Notes

1. The use of the term “Aboriginal” is in recognition of the preference of the Aboriginal community in southwest Sydney. While we recognize that this word may also apply to people of Torres Strait Islander background; however, the majority of the community in the region is of Aboriginal origin. Use of this term is also in line with NSW Health policy.