JCPSLP Vol 17 No 1 2015_lores

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Diversity in practice
JCPSLP Volume 17, Number 1 2015 7
KEYWORDS
INTELLIGIBILITY
MULTILINGUAL
SCREENING
ASSESSMENT
SPEECH SOUND
DISORDERS
INVITED
PAPER
Sharynne
McLeod
about children’s intelligibility (Flipsen, 1995) and used rating
scales for quantifying intelligibility (Kent, Miolo, & Bloedel,
1994). The ICS has been described as a measure of
functional success that “permits one to gain inroads into
what counts as a clinically, communicatively, as opposed to
merely statistically significant change in intelligibility, either
generally, or, more realistically, in relation to given listeners,
in given situations” (Miller, 2013, p. 608).
The Intelligibility in Context Scale was designed to
provide a first-phase screening measure of functional
intelligibility. It was designed so that speech pathologists
can determine whether children who speak languages
other than their own require additional assessment. One
of the challenges of speech pathologists who work in
diversely multilingual countries such as Australia is that
there are few screening and assessment tools that are
available in languages other than English (Caesar &
Kohler, 2007; Jordaan, 2008; Williams & McLeod, 2012).
While comprehensive assessments are available in some
languages (e.g., Cantonese, German, Japanese, Korean,
Turkish, Spanish, for a complete list see
,
many of these assessments require the speech pathologist
to speak that language in order to administer and score the
assessment (McLeod & Verdon, 2014). For other languages
(e.g., Dari, Fijian, Hmong, Somali, Tongan, isiXhosa,
isiZulu), there are few speech pathology assessments or
resources. The International Expert Panel on Multilingual
Children’s Speech (2012) recommended that speech
pathologists “generate and share knowledge, resources,
and evidence nationally and internationally to facilitate
the understanding of cultural and linguistic diversity that
will support multilingual children’s speech acquisition and
communicative competence” (p. 2). Consequently, speech
pathologists from across the world have collaborated to
provide the ICS as a free screening tool in 60 languages.
Validation and norming of the ICS
on English-speaking children
The ICS was originally validated on 120 Australian English-
speaking preschool-aged children (McLeod, Harrison &
McCormack, 2012b). In this study the ICS was found to
have high internal reliability, good sensitivity, and construct
validity. A positive correlation was found between the
children’s scores on the ICS and their percentage of
consonants correct on the Diagnostic Evaluation of
The Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) is a
free parent-report screening tool that has
been translated into 60 languages. The
creation of the 7-item scale was informed by
the World Health Organization’s International
Classification of Functioning, Disability, and
Health. Translation and back translation into
60 languages has been undertaken
internationally by speech pathologists,
linguists, and translators. Since its creation,
the ICS has been validated on 120 English-
speaking children in Australia and 74
Cantonese-speaking children from Hong
Kong. The ICS has been normed on 804
Australian English-speaking children and
additional validation, norming, and clinical
studies are underway in countries including:
Brazil, Croatia, Fiji, Iceland, Iran, Israel,
Jamaica, Germany, New Zealand, Slovenia,
South Africa, and Sweden. The ICS is a
promising screening measure for speech
pathologists to use to consider parental
perceptions of children’s intelligibility with
different communicative partners.
The Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS; McLeod,
Harrison & McCormack, 2012a) is parent-report
screening tool of children’s intelligibility with
different communicative partners. The seven questions
relate to different communicative partners: the parent,
immediate family members, extended family members,
the child’s friends, acquaintances, teachers and strangers.
Identification of these seven communicative partners was
informed by the Support and Relationships chapter within
the Environmental factors section of the International
Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health: Children
and Youth (ICF-CY; World Health Organization, 2007).
Parents rate their children’s ability to be understood by
each of these communicative partners on a 5-point Likert
scale (always, usually, sometimes, rarely, never) and an
average score out of 5 is generated across the 7 items.
Previous researchers have used parents as informants
Intelligibility in Context
Scale
A parent-report screening tool translated into 60 languages
Sharynne McLeod