Adaptation of a Screening Test for Bilingual and Bidialectal Populations

Abstract

Screening for language problems in minority preschool children is not straight-forward because of these children's diverse cultural, economic, and linguistic backgrounds. Over 68% of the 540 preschool English-speaking children in the Fort Worth Head Start program obtained scores at least one standard deviation below the mean on the Hannah-Gardner Test of Verbal and Nonverbal Language Functioning. This high failure rate suggested that a local adaptation was needed for language screening. The procedures used to calculate local norms and other issues involved in screening minority population are discussed.