Language assessments

Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation

The Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation (DELV) is a picture-based language assessment designed to distinguish between a language difference and a language disorder in in four- to nine-year-old children. It was originally developed for child speakers of different varieties of American English, but has been adapted for South African English and translated and adapted for Afrikaans. A major goal of the DELV is to reduce bias in language assessment, particularly for children who speak non-mainstream dialects, because traditional language tests sometimes incorrectly identify dialectal features as language impairments. The DELV examines syntax (sentence structure and grammar), pragmatics (use of language in different social contexts), narrative skills (storytelling), nonword repetition (processing and phonological memory), and phonology (consonant clusters in different word positions). Data has been collected amongst more that 500 English-speaking and more than 1000 Afrikaans-speaking South African children and developmental norms are being calculated.

LITMUS Cross-Linguistic Lexical Tasks

The LITMUS Cross-Linguistic Lexical Tasks (CLTs) are standardized, picture-based vocabulary assessments developed within the Language Impairment Testing in Multilingual Settings (LITMUS) project to evaluate lexical knowledge of monolingual and multilingual children. The tasks assess both comprehension and production of nouns and verbs through four subtests: noun comprehension, verb comprehension, noun production, and verb production. CLTs are not translations but are carefully adapted for each language to ensure cross-linguistic comparability while accounting for language-specific semantic, phonological, and morphological characteristics. Designed primarily for children aged 3–5 years, the CLTs are widely used in research and clinical practice to investigate vocabulary development, compare language abilities across languages, and help distinguish language differences associated with multilingualism from genuine language disorders. CLT language versions have been developed for Afrikaans, South African English, and isiXhosa, and validation of the Afrikaans version is underway.