PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Philip Wilson
AU  - Robert Rush
AU  - Jenna Charlton
AU  - Vicky Gilroy
AU  - Cristina McKean
AU  - James Law
TI  - Universal language development screening: comparative performance of two questionnaires
AID  - 10.1136/bmjpo-2021-001324
DP  - 2022 Jan 01
TA  - BMJ Paediatrics Open
PG  - e001324
VI  - 6
IP  - 1
4099  - http://bmjpaedsopen.bmj.com/content/6/1/e001324.short
4100  - http://bmjpaedsopen.bmj.com/content/6/1/e001324.full
SO  - BMJ Paediatrics Open2022 Jan 01; 6
AB  - Background and objective Low language ability in early childhood is a strong predictor of later psychopathology as well as reduced school readiness, lower educational attainment, employment problems and involvement with the criminal justice system. Assessment of early language development is universally offered in many countries, but there has been little evaluation of assessment tools. We planned to compare the screening performance of two commonly used language assessment instruments.Methods A pragmatic diagnostic accuracy study was carried out in five areas of England comparing the performance of two screening tools (Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) and Sure Start Language Measure (SSLM)) against a reference test (Preschool Language Scale, 5th edition).Results Results were available for 357 children aged 23–30 months. The ASQ Communication Scale using optimal cut-off values had a sensitivity of 0.55, a specificity of 0.95 and positive and negative predictive values of 0.53 and 0.95, respectively. The SSLM had corresponding values of 0.83, 0.81, 0.33 and 0.98, respectively. Both screening tools performed relatively poorly in families not using English exclusively in the home.Conclusion The very widely used ASQ Communication Scale performs poorly as a language screening tool, missing over one-third of cases of low language ability. The SSLM performed better as a screening tool.Data are available in a public, open access repository. The data from this project, together with other data from the study, will be available in the Newcastle University data repository. The protocol (initial accepted response to tender), the final report, the deidentified participant data and a data dictionary will be made available with publication from Newcastle University - My data (ncl.ac.uk). The reports are available currently. The data will be available by March 2022. Data access will be subject to a data access agreement but beyond that will be fully accessible. Those wishing to access the data will be given support from the investigator team if required.