Screening accuracy and developmental language disorder remain stable between 2.5 and 3 years

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Medicine
• Developmental Psychology
• Speech-Language Pathology

Background:

• The Swedish child health program now screens language at 2.5 years, a shift from 3 years.
• Re-evaluation of language screening accuracy is necessary due to this change.
• Investigating diagnostic stability between 2.5 and 3 years is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the classification accuracy of language screening at 2.5 years.
• To determine the stability of language disorder diagnoses between 2.5 and 3 years of age.
• To inform clinical practice regarding early language screening.

Main Methods:

• Consecutive recruitment of children aged 2.5 years from Swedish Child Health Services (2016-2017).
• Assessment included language screening and clinical examination by a speech and language pathologist.
• Follow-up re-examination occurred at 36-38 months for diagnosis confirmation.

Main Results:

• Language status remained stable for most monolingual (45/48) and bilingual (87/93) children between 2.5 and 3 years.
• A small number of children changed status (3 monolingual, 6 bilingual), with no statistical significance.
• Classification stability was confirmed by screening parameters within the 95% Confidence Interval.

Conclusions:

• Language screening at 2.5 years demonstrates robust accuracy and classification stability up to 3 years.
• The findings support the current screening age, indicating no need for a wait-and-see approach.
• Early identification and diagnosis of developmental language disorder are supported.