Validity of the language development survey in infants born preterm.

<bold>Background: </bold>Preterm infants are at greater risk of language delay. Early identification of language delay is essential to improve functional outcome in these children.<bold>Aim: </bold>To examine the concurrent validity of Rescorla's Language Development Survey and the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (Bayley-III) at 18months corrected age in preterm infants.<bold>Study Design: </bold>Test accuracy study.<bold>Participants: </bold>189 preterm infants born <29weeks were assessed at 18months.<bold>Outcome Measures: </bold>The Language Development Survey, a parent-reported screening instrument, was administered in French concurrently with the Language Scales of the Bayley-III. Receiver-Operating-Characteristics curves were used to determine optimal cut-off score on the Language Development Survey to identify Bayley-III score <85. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and κ coefficient were calculated.<bold>Results: </bold>Using Rescorla's original cut-off scores of ≤10 words for boys and ≤24 for girls, sensitivity was 76% and 88% for boys and girls, respectively, and specificity was 73% and 52% for boys and girls, respectively, in identifying language delay as per the Bayley-III. The optimal threshold was ≤10 words for both boys and girls. In girls, lowering the cut-off score decreased sensitivity (79%), but improved specificity (82%), thus lowering the number of false-positives.<bold>Conclusion: </bold>Our findings support using the Language Development Survey as an expressive language screener in preterm infants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]