Published in:
01-12-2014 | ORIGINAL ARTICLE
CDC Kerala 6: Validation of Language Evaluation Scale Trivandrum (0–3 y) Against Receptive Expressive Emergent Language Scale in a Developmental Evaluation Clinic Population
Published in: Indian Journal of Pediatrics | Special Issue 2/2014
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Objective
To validate Language Evaluation Scale Trivandrum (LEST) 0 – 3 y against the reference standard, Receptive Expressive Emergent Language Scale (REELS) in a population of children attending CDC developmental evaluation clinic 0 – 3 y.
Methods
All the children clinically diagnosed as having speech and language problem in the developmental evaluation clinic of CDC Kerala over a period of 3 y were assessed using LEST (0-3) by trained developmental therapist and REELS by a speech therapist, both blind to the results of each other.
Results
Out of a total of 761 children between 0-3 y diagnosed as having speech problems by a Developmental Pediatrician in the developmental evaluation clinic (0 – 3 y) of CDC Kerala, both LEST and REELS could be administered among 679 children. The screening tool LEST 0-3 had a high sensitivity (84.4%), specificity (80.3%), Positive Predictive Value (PPV) (91.5%), Negative Predictive Value (NPV) (67.1%) and accuracy (83.2%) against the reference standard REELS.
Conclusions
The observation of this study that LEST 0-3 had a high sensitivity, specificity and accuracy against REELS, suggest that in a developmental / speech evaluation clinic LEST could be effectively used in resource poor settings.