Adaptation of the "Language Use Inventory" to Brazilian Portuguese

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Developmental Psychology
• Speech-Language Pathology

Background:

• The Language Use Inventory (LUI) is a parent-report measure assessing pragmatic language development.
• Adaptation of existing measures is crucial for cross-cultural applicability and accurate assessment in diverse populations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To translate and adapt the Language Use Inventory (LUI) for use with Brazilian Portuguese-speaking children.
• To evaluate the reliability and validity of the adapted LUI in a Brazilian sample.

Main Methods:

• The study involved 254 Brazilian parents and children aged 18–47 months.
• The translated LUI was administered in both online and in-person formats.
• Internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach's alpha; Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests analyzed completion methods, sex, age, and parental education.

Main Results:

• No significant differences were found between online and printed LUI completion formats.
• The Brazilian Portuguese LUI demonstrated excellent internal consistency (α>0.99) across all subscales.
• Girls and children with more educated parents scored higher on specific LUI parts and the total score.

Conclusions:

• The Brazilian Portuguese LUI is a reliable instrument for assessing pragmatic language functioning in preschoolers.
• The adapted LUI shows similar reliability and developmental trends to the original English version.
• This validated tool supports the assessment of language development in Brazilian children.