Objective Methods in the Assessment of Child Language Development in Natural Settings and Using Testing

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Abstract

The authors describe the application of various approaches to the assessment of child language development reviewing the methods most widely used in research and clinical practice. The review outlines the benefits and some limitations of longitudinal method of assessment using language recordings, language corpus analysis and transcripts of speech samples. Technical aspects of the linguistic environment recordings using LENA technology, which allows to achieve ecologic validity in the assessment of children’s language environment, are considered. Analysis of the corpus data through the transcription of the dialogues between children and adults are discussed, as well as the study of linguistic parameters of child speech in comparison to a normative group of peers. The authors offer a review of the most widely known parent reports, questionnaires, and maximum performance testing of children’s language development. Among the assessment tools available for Russian-speaking populations McArthur-Bates CDI and PLS-5 are reviewed. The authors note an importance of integration of Russian research into the international scientific knowledgebase through the adaptation of methods for assessment of language development in children.

About the authors

Marina A. Zhukova

Saint Petersburg State University; Sirius University; University of Houston

Author for correspondence.
Email: marina.zhukova@times.uh.edu
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-3069-570X

Ph.D., is Research Fellow, Laboratory of Translational Developmental Sciences, Saint Petersburg State University (St. Petersburg, Russia); Senior Research Fellow, Center for Cognitive Sciences, Sirius University, Federal territory "Sirius" (Sochi, Russia); Research Assistant, Department of Psychology, University of Houston (Houston, USA).

7-9 Universitetskaya Naberezhnaya, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation; 1 Olimpiiskii Prospekt, Sochi, 354340, Russian Federation; 4800 Calhoun Road, Houston, 77004, United States of America

Victoria A. Manasevich

Saint Petersburg State University

Email: vremeni@yandex.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-7423-3734

graduate student, Center for Cognitive Sciences

7-9 Universitetskaya Naberezhnaya, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation

Irina V. Golovanova

Saint Petersburg State University; Sirius University

Email: ir.golovanova@gmail.com
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-0826-6386

Ph.D., is Senior Research Fellow, Center for Cognitive Sciences, Sirius University, Federal territory "Sirius" (Sochi, Russia); Research Fellow, Laboratory of Translational Developmental Sciences, Saint Petersburg State University (St. Petersburg, Russia).

7-9 Universitetskaya Naberezhnaya, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation; 1 Olimpiiskii Prospekt, Sochi, 354340, Russian Federation

Pavel I. Letyagin

Pavlov Institute of Physiology, Russian Academy of Sciences

Email: letyagin.ps@gmail.com
ORCID iD: 0000-0003-0138-4459

Senior Laboratory Technician, Laboratory of Physiology of Hearing

6 Naberezhnaya Makarova, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation

Taisia A. Ulianova

HSE University; Potsdam University

Email: taisia99@inbox.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-9561-5811

research intern, Laboratory of Social and Cognitive Informatics, HSE University (St. Petersburg, Russia); graduate student, Potsdam University (Potsdam, Germany).

55 Sedova St, bldg 2, St. Petersburg, 192148, Russian Federation; 10 Am Neuen Palais, Potsdam, 14469, Federal Republic of Germany

Sofia S. Tikhonova

Saint Petersburg State University

Email: tikhonova-sofiya@mail.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6565-8733

2nd-year student, Department of Psychology

7-9 Universitetskaya Naberezhnaya, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation

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Copyright (c) 2022 Zhukova M.A., Manasevich V.A., Golovanova I.V., Letyagin P.I., Ulianova T.A., Tikhonova S.S.

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