Adapting and translating the Mullen Scales of Early Learning for the South African context

South African Journal of Communication Disorders

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Adapting and translating the Mullen Scales of Early Learning for the South African context
 
Creator Bornman, Juan Romski, MaryAnn Tonsing, Kerstin Sevcik, Rose White, Robyn Barton-Hulsey, Andrea Morwane, Refilwe
 
Subject — assessment; children; cultural adaption; linguistic equivalence; Mullen Scales of Early Learning; translation
Description Background: South African speech-language therapists have identified the need for culturally valid and sensitive assessment tools that can accommodate multiple languages and cover a reasonable age range. The Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL) extend from birth to 68 months, contain five separate subscales including receptive language, expressive language, gross motor, fine motor and visual reception scale, are straightforward to administer and have been successfully used in other African countries, such as Uganda. It also identifies a child’s strengths and weaknesses and provides a solid foundation for intervention planning.Objectives: This research aimed to demonstrate the appropriateness and usefulness of the translated and culturally and linguistically adapted MSEL across four South African languages (Afrikaans, isiZulu, Setswana and South African English) through two sub-aims: (1) to describe differences, if any, in MSEL performance across language groups and (2) to describe differences, if any, in MSEL performance between age groups.Method: A total of 198 typically developing children between the ages of 21 and 68 months spread across the four language groups were individually assessed with the culturally and linguistically adapted and translated MSEL.Results: A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed no statistically significant differences between the four language groups for total MSEL scores. A Welch’s one-way ANOVA showed that the total MSEL scores were significantly different between age groups.Conclusion: The translation and adaptation of the MSEL was successful and did not advantage or disadvantage children based on their home language, implying that linguistic equivalence was achieved. The MSEL results differed between age groups, suggesting that the measure was also successful in differentiating the performance of children at different developmental levels.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor National Institutes of Health Fogarty International Center grant number TW-008999 to MaryAnn Romski
Date 2018-03-08
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip application/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajcd.v65i1.571
 
Source South African Journal of Communication Disorders; Vol 65, No 1 (2018); 9 pages 2225-4765 0379-8046
 
Language eng
 
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The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajcd.org.za/index.php/sajcd/article/view/571/769 https://sajcd.org.za/index.php/sajcd/article/view/571/768 https://sajcd.org.za/index.php/sajcd/article/view/571/770 https://sajcd.org.za/index.php/sajcd/article/view/571/767
 
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Rights Copyright (c) 2018 Juan Bornman, MaryAnn Romski, Kerstin Tonsing, Rose Sevcik, Robyn M. White, Andrea Barton-Hulsey, Refilwe Morwane https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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