Vocabulary assessment in Brazilian children: a systematic review with three instruments

Carbonieri, Juliana; Lúcio, Patrícia Silva

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Systematic Review • CoDAS 32 (3) • 2020 • https://doi.org/10.1590/2317-1782/20202018245 copy

Vocabulary assessment in Brazilian children: a systematic review with three instruments

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ABSTRACT

Purpose:

To investigate, through a systematic review, how three assessment instruments for children’s vocabulary (Test of Childhood language ABFW, Expressive Vocabulary Test - EVT, and Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test - PPVT) have been used in Brazilian research, verifying its purposes of uses and the main results of the researches.

Research strategy:

This review was organized in three studies. Study 1 referred to the process of a priori search and Study 2 referred to the a posteriori search. We searched for three Brazilian’s database (CAPES, SciELO, and PePSIC).

Selection criteria:

For Study 1, we selected empirical studies containing research data with one of the three-targeted tests, using typically developing school children (7 to 10 years old). For Study 2, we enlarged the age range for pre-school and extended the search to non-typically developing children.

Data analysis:

The selected articles were fully read and synthesized in a table containing the study’s aims, the age range of the sample, instrument, research design, main results, and journal.

Results:

We found out 24 articles, most of which from the speech-language therapy area. The results indicated the predominance of cross-sectional and observational studies, aiming to delineate the cognitive profile of children with some developmental disturbance, with or without control groups. None of the researches conducted a psychometric inquiry of the instruments.

Conclusion:

In Brazil, it is necessary to carry out research focusing on the psychometric inquiry of instruments for evaluating the vocabulary in pre-school and school-age children.

Keywords:
Vocabulary; Systematic Review; ABFW; EVT; Peabody

Authors	Objective	Age	Test	Method	Results	Journal
Araújo; Marteleto; Schoen-Ferreira, 2010	Evaluate the performance of preschool children in terms of receptive vocabulary.	4 to 7 years old.	Peabody.	159 students divided into two school groups: Group 1 - initial year (56%) - and Group 2 - final year of Elementary school.	The children in the final year scored more items on the test than the children in the initial year, but in terms of classification, they were below average, unlike the younger children, who obtained average scores.	Psychology Studies (Campinas).
Armonia et al., 2015	To compare the receptive and expressive vocabulary indexes of children with specific speech and language development disorders.	3 to 11 years old.	ABFW and Peabody.	Sample consisted of 21 children with specific developmental disorders of speech and language.	Most children showed adequate performance in the evaluation of expressive vocabulary and performance compatible with the age group in the evaluation of receptive vocabulary. Tendency for better performance in expressive vocabulary compared to receptive vocabulary.	Revista CEFAC.
Athayde; Carvalho; Mota, 2009	Correlate the performance of expressive vocabulary with the severity of the phonological disorder, the age groups and the reference values of the vocabulary test used.	3 to 8 years old.	ABFW.	The sample was composed of 17 children with phonological deviation, divided into four groups, according to the degree of deviation severity.	Children with lower deviation levels had higher results than others. Children with a medium deviation level had results expected for normality. Younger children presented performance inferior to older children, regardless of their level of phonological deviation.	Revista CEFAC.
Athayde; Mota; Mezzomo, 2010	Verify impact in the lexicon acquisition in children with phonological deviation and compare the vocabulary performance with the test normal reference value.	5 years old.	ABFW.	The sample was composed of 36 children divided into two groups: Study Group (14 children with phonological deviation) and Control Group (22 children with normal language development).	Despite presenting superior results, the Control Group did not differ statistically from the Study Group. Both groups showed satisfactory performance concerning the test reference indexes.	Pró-Fono Revista de Atualização Científica.
Bandini; Santos; Souza, 2013	Evaluate the expressive language skills of children in the 1st year of elementary school and investigate possible associations between phonological awareness and phonological working memory.	6 years old.	ABFW.	Two phases: phase 1 (n=254) assessed phonological awareness and phonological working memory; phase 2 (n=12) evaluated the vocabulary of individuals who obtained low or high scores in working memory and phonological awareness in the first phase.	Students with high scores had levels above expectations when compared to the test benchmark for age, and students with low scores showed results below expectations in expressive language skills.	Paideia.
Befi-Lopes; Nuñes; Cáceres, 2012	To verify the influence of age on lexical and grammatical performance and to investigate the existence of a correlation between expressive vocabulary and the mean length of utterance in children with specific language disorders.	4 to 6 years old.	ABFW.	Thirty children with a diagnosis of specific language impairment participated in the study, 10 from each age group.	A positive correlation was observed between the expressive vocabulary and the use of closed-class words and between the expressive vocabulary and the extension of words per statement.	Revista CEFAC.
Brancalioni et al., 2018	To compare the performance in expressive vocabulary tests between preschoolers from public and private schools.	4 to 5 years old.	ABFW.	The sample consisted of 86 preschoolers, of both genders, divided into two groups: G1 - a group of preschoolers from the public school system - and G2 - group of preschoolers from the private school system.	G2 performed better than G1 in the vocabulary test, with a significant difference for all conceptual fields, and, when comparing the performance of preschoolers with the test parameters, most preschoolers in G1 and G2 showed adequate performance.	Audiology - Communication Research.
Colalto et al., 2017	Verify the acquisition of vocabulary in deaf children, users of cochlear implants, as well as the factors that influence development.	4 to 8 years old.	ABFW.	Twenty children using cochlear implants, with an assessment of family participation in the development of these children.	There was no significant relationship between hearing age (time of using the cochlear implant) and vocabulary acquisition. There was no significant difference in chronological age, but the results showed a negative trend in this relationship between age and vocabulary. Family participation was significant.	Revista CEFAC.
Costa; Ávila, 2010	To investigate, in a group of preschoolers, the influence of phonological disorder on lexical and metaphonological skills and the existence of correlations between both.	4 to 6 years old.	ABFW.	Two groups of 56 preschoolers (32 boys)	Both groups showed similar behavior in the test (lexical competence) andconcerning metaphonological competence. Preschoolers with the disorder showed worse performance in the analysis. Positive correlations were identified, from good to moderate, between lexical and metaphonological skills.	Pró-Fono Revista de Atualização Científica.
Dias et al., 2016	To investigate the field of pragmatic language of verbal and non-verbal autistic children.	3 to 7 years old.	ABFW.	Thirty-one children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder had their pragmatic skills assessed.	The total number of non-verbal autistic patients was 27 (87%). The total number of communicative acts was 2.4 per minute, and the average of communication most used by the sample was gestural. The communicative space occupied by children with dyad was 47.7%. There was a significant difference between the use of skills that are categorized as interpersonal or non-interpersonal functions between verbal and non-verbal autists. The comparison of each function between verbal and non-verbal patients showed significant differences.	Revista de Logopedia, Foniatría y Audiología.
Ferreira et al., 2012	To investigate the performance of deaf children who use LIBRAS in expressive vocabulary tests.	5 to 8 years old.	ABFW.	The sample consisted of 64 subjects (32 children in the study group and 32 in the control group), who were divided into four groups by age.	The hearing-impaired group performed worse than the control group. Younger children performed better in the two groups analyzed. The performance of deaf children was below expectations for their age in most conceptual fields.	Revista CEFAC.
Ferreira; Lamônica, 2012	To verify the lexical, expressive and receptive performance of children with Down syndrome and compare with the performance of typical children matched by gender and mental age.	3 to 5 years old.	Peabody and ABFW.	Forty children participated in the study: SG = 20 with Down syndrome; and CG = 20 children with typical development, matched for gender and mental age.	The participants of the SG presented inferior performance to the CG in Peabody and in the usual verbal designation of ABFW, with significant differences. The performance in the receptive vocabulary was superior to the expressive in both groups and a correlation was verified between the performance in the receptive vocabulary and in the expressive of both groups.	Revista CEFAC.
Ferreira-Vasques; Abramides; Lamônica, 2017	To verify the expressive vocabulary of children with Down syndrome and to compare the performance of children with typical development of the same gender in two different pairings.	3 to 5 years old.	ABFW.	Forty-two children participated in the study: 14 children with Down syndrome; 14 with typical development, matched by gender and mental age; and 14 with typical development, matched by gender and chronological age.	The study found lower performance of children with Down compared to the chronological age-matched group for correct naming and non-naming of the figures. There was no significant difference between the group with Down syndrome and the group with typical development matched by mental age.	Revista CEFAC.
Fortunato-Tavares et al., 2012	Compare the performance of the expressive vocabulary of children with typical development and children with a specific language disorder.	8 to 10 years old.	ABFW.	Sixteen children with phonological disorders and 16 children with typical speech development, matched for age, gender, and socioeconomic status.	Children with specific language impairment were significantly less accurate in all conditions.	Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.
Granzotti et al., 2013	To assess lexical proficiency and the incidence of phonological disorders in the language of children infected with HIV.	3 to 7 years old.	ABFW.	The study population consisted of 31 children classified according to the clinical criteria of the disease.	In the vocabulary assessment, all children showed an inadequate response for their age in at least two distinct conceptual fields.	Revista CEFAC.
Kaminski; Mota; Cielo, 2011	Compare performance in expressive vocabulary and phonological awareness among children with phonological disorders and with typical language acquisition and analyze the influence of age on this performance.	5 to 7 years old.	ABFW.	Participants were divided into two groups: control (CG - typical language acquisition) and study (SG - phonological disorder).	The children of the SG achieved a lower performance than the participants of the CG in the analyzed tasks. When comparing the children's performance with the reference values, younger children, from both groups, had difficulties in the same tasks, with expressive vocabulary and phonological awareness. Children aged 6 and 7 showed difficulties only in expressive vocabulary.	Revista CEFAC.
Lamônica; Ferraz, 2007	To verify the performance of children with cerebral palsy in terms of psycholinguistic skills.	4 to 6 years old.	Peabody.	Eight individuals of both genders, diagnosed as cerebral palsy D, participated in this study.	The results showed a significant positive correlation between cognitive performance and receptive vocabulary.	Pró-Fono Revista de Atualização Científica.
Lamônica; Ferreira-Vasques, 2015	To verify the expressive communicative and lexical performance of children with Down syndrome.	3 to 5 years old.	ABFW.	Twenty children participated in the study: 10 with Down syndrome (SG) and 10 with typical development (CG), matched for gender, chronological age, and socioeconomic level.	There was a significant difference for two of the three categories analyzed in the test, namely: SG obtained a lower performance than the CG for "usual designation" and for "no designation", with a difference in all conceptual fields of the test. In the case of “substitution processes”, there was no difference between groups.	Revista CEFAC.
Medeiros et al., 2013	Characterize the expressive vocabulary and analyze the regional variables in a sample of students from the 1st year of Elementary School in Maceió.	6 to 7 years old.	ABFW.	Seventy-two students from three schools in Maceió participated: school 1 - upper region; school 2 - central region; and school 3 - lower region of the municipality (elite neighborhood).	There was no difference in the performance of the expressive vocabulary for age group and gender. Between schools, a difference was found in the DUV (designation by usual vocabulary) and SP (substitution processes) categories, with better performance for school 3 and worse performance for school 1. Regional variations were observed during the application of the expressive vocabulary test.	Audiology - Communication Research.
Misquiatti et al., 2015	Verify the vocabulary performance of institutionalized children and compare it with the performance of children belonging to the public and private schools.	4 to 5 years old.	ABFW.	Sixteen children in institutional shelter (SG), of both genders, and 32 children from the control group (CG), coming from public schools - CG1 (n = 16) - and private schools - CG (n = 16) - , matched for age.	The study observed that the institutionalized children demonstrated inferior performance in the vocabulary test concerning the CG, which did not present differences between them.	Revista CEFAC.
Mota et al., 2009	To verify the most frequent substitution processes and the most altered conceptual fields in an expressive vocabulary test of children with phonological disorders, relating them to the severity of the disorder.	3 to 8 years old.	ABFW.	The sample was composed of 44 subjects with phonological deviation, divided into four groups, according to the degree of deviation severity.	The “co-hyponym” substitution process is the most used by children, regardless of the degree of severity. It was also observed that children belonging to the medium-moderate degree had the highest percentage of altered conceptual fields, followed by the mild, severe and moderate-severe degree.	Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Fonoaudiologia.
Oliveira et al., 2011	Compare the development of premature and underweight children (G1) with children born at term (G2), evaluating academic, behavioral, linguistic and cognitive indicators.	5 years old.	Peabody.	The sample consisted of 34 children, of both genders, divided into two groups: preterm and term.	In the language assessment, concerning the applied test, there was no significant difference between the groups analyzed.	Psicologia: Teoria e Pesquisa.
Passaglio et al., 2015	To verify the association between phonological profile and vocabulary of children from public and private schools in Belo Horizonte and to analyze the influence of the family and the educational institution on child development.	4 to 5 years old.	ABFW.	Ninety-six children of both genders, from two public and one private institution, were evaluated.	The association between phonology and vocabulary showed an influence of the family environment on child development. Male children showed significantly lower results than female participants. Regarding the institution, children from the private institution showed significantly lower results for vocabulary adequacy.	Revista CEFAC.
Pupo et al., 2016	To analyze the phonological and vocabulary performance of children with unilateral hearing loss.	3 to 7 years old.	ABFW.	Twelve children with unilateral hearing loss, 6 of them with conductive loss due to congenital malformation of the ear and 6 with congenital or acquired sensorineural loss in the 1st year of life.	In the vocabulary test, only two children with sensorineural loss presented values below the expected for their age; thus, in general, there was no difference between the sensorineural and conductive groups in the phonology and vocabulary tests.	Audiology - Communication Research.

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[1] Correspondence address: Patrícia Silva Lúcio Universidade Estadual de Londrina - Rodovia Celso Garcia Cid. PR 445 Km 380 Campus Universitário Cx. Postal 10.011 Londrina (PR), Brasil. CEP 86.057-970. E-mail: pslucio@gmail.com