Specific language impairment in Cypriot Greek: diagnostic issues
Journal
Linguistic Variation
Date Issued
January 2013
DOI
10.1075/lv.13.2.04the
Abstract
Investigating children’s language skills in their native variety is of paramount
importance. Clinical practices cannot be based on findings from languages or
varieties which have different properties. This paper, after demonstrating the
importance of investigating Specific Language Impairment (SLI) in Cyprus,
assesses the feasibility of existing language assessments in Standard Modern
Greek for the diagnosis of SLI in the Greek Cypriot context, for the children’s
native variety of Cypriot Greek. In total, 16 children with SLI (5 to 9 years)
and 22 age-matched typically language developing children participated in
this study. However, given that not all stimuli in the Standard Greek versions
were appropriate for Cypriot Greek-speaking children and because of cultural
differences, the tools were adapted. Results showed that the assessment tools can
accurately identify children with SLI from typically language developing peers
with sensitivity and specificity when the comparison is between children that use
the same variety
importance. Clinical practices cannot be based on findings from languages or
varieties which have different properties. This paper, after demonstrating the
importance of investigating Specific Language Impairment (SLI) in Cyprus,
assesses the feasibility of existing language assessments in Standard Modern
Greek for the diagnosis of SLI in the Greek Cypriot context, for the children’s
native variety of Cypriot Greek. In total, 16 children with SLI (5 to 9 years)
and 22 age-matched typically language developing children participated in
this study. However, given that not all stimuli in the Standard Greek versions
were appropriate for Cypriot Greek-speaking children and because of cultural
differences, the tools were adapted. Results showed that the assessment tools can
accurately identify children with SLI from typically language developing peers
with sensitivity and specificity when the comparison is between children that use
the same variety