Browsing by Author "Kaivola, Anna"

In Finland there does not exists any assessment tool based on parent ratings which can be used to assess 2;6–4;0-year-old children’s language ability. The LEINIKKI method is under development to fill this gap. Before a new assessment method can be applied research has to exist about its reliability and validity to support conclusions made by the assessment method. The aim of this study was to gain information about the LEINIKKI method’s subscales that assess morphology and syntax skills when assessing preschool aged children. Reliability and validity were examined by internal consistency and concurrent validity, respectively. This study used data from the LEINIKKI research project. The sample included 60 healthy, monolingual Finnish-speaking children aged between 2 years 7 months and 4 years 1 month. In addition to parent report instrument (LEINIKKI) children’s language skills were assessed by examiner-administered tests (the Finnish Morphology test, the Finnish version of the Reynell Developmental Language Scales III). Internal consistency of the LEINIKKI method’s subscales that assess morphology and syntax skills was measured by the coefficient alpha and by examining the distribution of the answers. Concurrent validity was assessed by comparing the results from the LEINIKKI method and the examiner-administered tests by using correlation coefficients. Internal consistency of the LEINIKKI method’s subscales that assess morphology and syntax skills was high, although some items were very easy. Statistically significant correlations were found between the LEINIKKI method and the examiner-administered tests. The connections were moderately strong and positive. Thus, preliminary evidence of concurrent validity was achieved. Results indicate that the LEINIKKI method’s “Inflected forms and grammatical structures” subscale functions better with children under 3 years 6 months and “Language complexity” subscale functions better with children older than 3 years 6 months. Using the Mean Length of Three Longest Utterances (M3L value) in this population seems promising if the instructions can be modified so that parents understand them more consistently. This thesis focuses only on LEINIKKI method’s subscales that assess morphology and syntax skills. Results about the whole assessment tool’s usability and validity will be gotten after the normative study of the LEINIKKI method is ready.