Alexandra Karousou, Tεστ Eπικοινωνιακής Aνάπτυξης (ΤΕΑ) - Κλίμακες για την πρώιμη εκτίμηση της επικοινωνιακής και γλωσσικής ανάπτυξης παιδιών ηλικίας 8-30 μηνών: Πιλοτικά δεδομένα και βασικές ψυχομετρικές ιδιότητες, Προσχολική & Σχολική Εκπαίδευση, 2|2014, 83-114


Early language development constitutes an important milestone and a useful indicator of children’s overall development. Based on empirical evidence, early expressive language delay, in certain cases, is linked with subsequent persistent language delays or developmental disorders. The early identification of children at risk for language deficits and their inclusion in adequate intervention programmes can prevent or alleviate the impact that these disorders may have on children’s academic progress or in their overall psychosocial development. Thus, the early systematic screening of language and communication in infants and toddlers reserves particular attention in terms of the clinical and educational practice. The aim of the current empirical work is to explore the basic psychometric properties of TEA (Tεστ Επικοινωνιακής Ανάπτυξης / Communicative Development Test), a new parent-report tool which was developed for the early screening of communicative and language development in Greek-speaking infants and toddlers. Following a detailed description of TEA's scales and sub-scales, the results of a pilot study based on a nationally-driven sample are presented. More specifically, data from 354 healthy children growing in Greek-speaking families and covering the entire developmental span between 8 to 30 months of age were collected. Detailed analyses indicate the sensitivity of the items included and the high internal consistency of the two major scales of TEA ("Preverbal behaviours" and "Verbal behaviours") and their sub-scales, namely: vocal and non-vocal preverbal communication, language comprehension, productive vocabulary, morphology and syntax. Additionally, evidence concerning their high convergent and divergent validity is provided. Results also illustrate the developmental patterns of all the dimensions of communicative / linguistic development contemplated, as well as the high and significant correlations among these dimensions of (pre)linguistic knowledge. Overall, results of this exploratory administration of TEA provide preliminary evidence on the functionality of this new psychometric tool, and suggest that it may be proved a critical measure of young children’s communicative and linguistic development with regard to future use for educational, clinical and/or research purposes.

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