CDC Kerala 6: Validation of Language Evaluation Scale Trivandrum (0-3 y) against Receptive Expressive Emergent Language Scale in a developmental evaluation clinic population.

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.