Developing culturally appropriate and sensitive stimuli for assessment of language ability of linguistically diverse toddlers (LINGO pilot study)

During the first stage of the study, we invite caregivers to visit us at our clinic for an interview (1.5 hours). On the screen, you will be presented with pictures representing words (nouns, verbs, concepts, etc.). You will also hear Māori, Samoan, Mandarin, or English voice-over instructions. You will be asked how often you use these words when communicating with your child and what pictures best describe the words. We will use your feedback to modify the library of pictures for interviews with other participants.

During the second stage, we will invite 2-4-year-old children to look at pictures and voice-over instructions (30 minutes). We will observe their reaction to the presented content and record our observations.

You can choose to be involved in a caregiver interview, bring your child to view pictures or both. Therefore, we may complete recruitment to one of the stages of the study but not the other. If this is the case, you might not be able to participate in both stages of the study. You can choose not to participate at all or participate in only one study stage.

You are welcome to discuss this study with your whānau and friends. You can also bring a support person with you to the interview and a child observation session.

If you are a caregiver of a 2-4-year-old child and one of the following applies to you:

• Apart from English (intermediate level and above), you also speak Māori, Samoan, or Mandarin to your child some or most of the time,
• Your child is exposed to Māori, Samoan, or Mandarin for at least 25% of the time through communication with close or extended family, even if you don’t speak those languages

If you and your child communicate in English only within and outside the family environment (monolingual group), we would like to invite you and your child to participate in this research as well.

Dr Nataliia Simonov
Department of Psychological Medicine, the University of Auckland
Email: lingo@auckland.ac.nz or n.simonov@auckland.ac.nz