Lahr, Marissa Jean
(2024)
Developing an Evidence-Based Procedure for Bilingual Phonological Assessment Using Item Response Theory (IRT).
Master's Thesis, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
Nearly a quarter of the pediatric population living in the USA are bilingual, with Spanish and English being the most well-represented language combination (National Center for Education Statistics, 2023). Speech-language pathologists do not have access to standardized test for bilingual children, leading to misdiagnosis of this population. Due to the heterogeneity of bilingual populations, unlike monolingual English-speaking children, challenges in the development of standardized tests are common. Historically, Item Response Theory (IRT) has been used in test development to determine the strongest items for discrimination, rather than relying on normative data as a comparator. In this study, IRT was utilized to identify a highly discriminatory, sensitive, and specific set of words from larger wordlist for a diagnostic Spanish-English speech sound protocol. We found that IRT in the absence of standardized tests for children can be used to identify strong discriminatory items for typical and impaired children, which can then be compiled and utilized for diagnostic purposes. These results are preliminary but predictive of the words that will be included in the final protocol. Further, the findings showcase how IRT can be used in identifying the most discriminatory items from a larger list, which has never been done for bilingual speech sound skills. These preliminary results will be used in conjunction with a larger and more diverse dataset in order to arrive at a final protocol for assessment. This protocol will be a valuable addition to the SLP toolkit when conducting bilingual Spanish-English speech sound assessments.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
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| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
6 June 2024 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
1 March 2024 |
| Approval Date: |
6 June 2024 |
| Submission Date: |
2 April 2024 |
| Access Restriction: |
2 year -- Restrict access to University of Pittsburgh for a period of 2 years. |
| Number of Pages: |
72 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences > Communication Science and Disorders |
| Degree: |
MS - Master of Science |
| Thesis Type: |
Master's Thesis |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
Bilingual
Speech sounds
Assessment
Pediatric |
| Date Deposited: |
06 Jun 2024 13:59 |
| Last Modified: |
06 Jun 2024 13:59 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/45971 |
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