Development, Validation, and Reliability of a Teacher-Reported Speech and Language Disorders Scale

Area of Science:

• Speech-language pathology
• Educational psychology
• Pediatric screening

Background:

• Early identification of speech and language disorders is crucial for academic success.
• Existing screening tools may not be tailored for the Turkish population.
• Teachers play a vital role in observing children's communication development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel teacher-reported screening tool for speech and language disorders in Turkish primary school children.
• To assess the psychometric properties of the developed scale.

Main Methods:

• Development of the Teacher-Reported Speech and Language Disorders Scale (TSLDS) through literature review and expert consultation.
• Content validity, construct validity, known-groups validity, test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and interrater reliability were examined.
• The final scale was administered to 84 teachers of 980 children across 19 schools.

Main Results:

• The TSLDS demonstrated a unidimensional structure with high factor loadings.
• Excellent reliability was found: internal consistency (α = .94), test-retest (r = .97), interrater (Krippendorff α = .98).
• The scale showed high sensitivity (91.7%) and specificity (90.9%) with an optimal cutoff score of 5.

Conclusions:

• The TSLDS is a reliable and valid instrument for screening speech and language disorders in primary school children.
• The scale effectively differentiates between children with and without disorders.
• This tool provides a practical solution for early identification and timely referral in school settings.