An introduction to the Russian adaptation of the battery for the assessment of language in children (BVL_RU)

Introduction. A significant percentage of children (i.e., 5 to 8%) may present a significant language delay and/or impairment (Tomblin et al. 1997) which is not directly linked to any intellectual or cognitive disability. In such cases, children receive a diagnosis of Primary Language Impairment (PLI). Considering these numbers, it is extremely important to have reliable batteries of tests suitable to characterize and quantify such linguistic impairments in affected children. To the best of our knowledge, however, there is a need for such diagnostic tools for Russian speaking children. The majority of the existing language assessment procedures is based on qualitative evaluations and lack modern validating and standardizing procedures. The current study aims to describe the Russian adaptation of the “Batteria per la Valutazione del Linguaggio in bambini dai 4 ai 12 anni” (BVL_4-12; Marini et al., 2015). This is a comprehensive battery of tests with solid theoretical and psychometric properties that has been designed to assess comprehension, oral production, and repetition skills in children aged 4 through to 12. Most importantly, it is now being adapted also to other languages (e.g., Spanish, Slovenian, and German) ensuring the possibility to compare the linguistic performance of bilinguals and children with different languages from a cross-linguistic perspective. Materials & Procedures. The Russian adaptation of the BVL_4-12 (BVL_RU) has paid particular attention to the specific features of Russian language (e.g., lexical frequencies as well as its phonological and grammatical properties). It has been administered to a cohort of preschool children from Omsk and Kursk, Russia. All children performed within normal range on the Raven's Progressive Matrices and on tasks designed to assess their phonological short-term and working memory. Results & Discussion. After describing the tasks that form the BVL_4-12, we outline the performance of 2 children with diagnosis of PLI by calculating z-scores for each measure of the Battery. This analysis confirmed the presence of significant impairments in such children and suggested that the Battery is a valuable diagnostic tool to characterize their linguistic profile.