The Development and Initial Evaluation of an Oral Language Assessment Tool for Young People Caught Up in the Legal System

Abstract

There has been increasing awareness over the past decade that young people in Youth Justice have significantly high levels of oral language difficulty. Many of the processes and practices of youth justice assume normal or even high levels of language competence, hence there is a need to incorporate this knowledge of oral language difficulty into such processes and practices. Currently, there is little knowledge about the issue among professions involved in Youth Justice in Aotearoa New Zealand, and little study of the nature of need in this context. It is likely that changes need to be embedded in existing services, as specialist Speech language therapists are unlikely to be available in sufficient numbers to provide a specific service. For example, there are few assessment tools that do not assume specialist capacity to use them (such as that of a Speech language therapist) but it is mostly youth justice staff who need to be able to assess young people. Therefore, this study set out to develop, do an initial trial, and evaluate a criterion referenced oral language assessment tool for young people involved in the youth justice system that could ultimately be used by non-Speech language therapists. The process involved firstly consulting Youth Justice practitioners on their observations of the communication abilities of the young people they dealt with. This information to develop an online survey which was then sent out to Youth Justice practitioners. Thirty-three responses were received. Existing language assessments were surveyed for their effectiveness with the youth justice population, and the information from these sources was used to construct an instrument - The Oral Language Assessment Tool, or OLAT-YJ . The OLAT-YJ was then trialled with a sample of 18 young males, incarcerated in youth justice residences in Aotearoa New Zealand. Results included a comparison of the performance of the young people on this tool to that of their performance on a norm-referenced language assessment. The trial indicated that some parts of the OLAT-YJ seemed to be both accurate and insightful as to the nature of language difficulties relevant to the Youth Justice system. Some parts were less effective. Recommended revisions, limitations and future directions are discussed.