Intelligibility in Context Scale: Sensitivity and specificity in the Jamaican context.

Area of Science:

• Speech-Language Pathology
• Bilingualism Research
• Child Development

Background:

• Assessing speech sound disorders in bilingual children presents unique challenges.
• The Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) is a validated tool, but its accuracy in specific populations needs further investigation.
• Jamaican Creole (JC) is widely spoken, necessitating culturally and linguistically appropriate assessment tools.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the diagnostic accuracy (sensitivity and specificity) of the English Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) and its Jamaican Creole translation (ICS-JC).
• To evaluate the effectiveness of auditory administration of the ICS and ICS-JC for parent reporting.
• To establish the utility of these tools for screening speech sound disorders in bilingual Jamaican preschoolers.

Main Methods:

• 262 simultaneous bilingual preschool children (aged 3-6) speaking English and Jamaican Creole participated.
• Parents completed the ICS and ICS-JC via auditory administration.
• Sensitivity and specificity were calculated using a cut-off score of 4.12.

Main Results:

• Both the ICS and ICS-JC demonstrated high sensitivity (0.84) and specificity (0.70-0.71) for identifying children needing further speech sound disorder assessment.
• Auditory administration of the ICS was confirmed as a valid method for collecting parent speech intelligibility reports.
• The findings support the use of these tools for screening in the Jamaican context.

Conclusions:

• The ICS and ICS-JC are effective screening tools for speech sound disorders in bilingual Jamaican children.
• Auditory administration is a viable method, particularly beneficial for languages without a written form or for parents with low literacy.
• This research expands the availability of evidence-based tools for assessing bilingual children globally.