Evaluation of Children's Speech in Slovenia

The authors present an original Slovene instrument for assessment of children's language front ages four to six that was developed based oil the analysis of foreign tests and the authors' own research. While the criteria for assessment of child's story have been presented in detail ill Slovenia and elsewhere, the present article presents the Scales of general language development (LSGR - LJ), which arc currently in the process of standardization and which will have not only research. but also broader applications. LSGR - LJ is comprised of three scales, i.e., Scale of language comprehension, Scale of language expression, and Scale of metalinguistic awareness The latter scale is given to five- and six-year-olds and younger children who have solved tasks for five-year-olds on the scales of verbal expression, while the former scales are given to children starting at two years of age. The instrument contains 22 1 tasks, however, each child only solves the tasks appropriate to h chronological age and language competence. Previous studies have shown that LSGR - LJ is a highly reliable instrument. In addition, it satisfies the criteria of content, construct, and convergence validities.