Cross-cultural adaptation of Preschool Language Assessment Instrument: Second Edition

In Brazil, formal tools for the evaluation of spoken language are scarce. Therefore, this study aimed to translate and adapt to Brazilian Portuguese the Preschool Language Assessment Instrument: Second Edition (PLAI-2).

The process of translation and adaptation of this instrument was conducted in two stages - Stage 1: (1a) translation of the original version to Brazilian Portuguese, (1b) comparison of the translated versions and synthesis into a single Portuguese version, (1c) back-translation, (1d) revision of the translated version; and Step 2: (2a) application of the Portuguese version in a pilot project with 30 subjects, and (2b) statistical comparison of three age groups.

In the Brazilian version, all items of the original version were kept. However, it was necessary to modify the application order of one item, and the change of one picture was suggested in another. The results obtained after application indicated that the Brazilian version of the PLAI-2 allows us to distinguish the performance of participants belonging to different age groups, and that the raw score tends to increase with age.

Semantic and syntactic adjustments were required and made to ensure that PLAI-2 would be used with the same methodological rigor of the original instrument. The adaptation process observed the theoretical, semantic, and cultural equivalences.