Preschoolers need their siesta: A Spanish adaptation of the Narrative Assessment Protocol (NAP)
Brenda K.
1
Gorman ,
1Marquette
BACKGROUND
Latino children constitute the
largest and fastest growing ethnic
group in the U.S., many of whom
speak Spanish in the home.1
One means of addressing the
persistent achievement gap
between language minority and
majority children is participation in
high quality preschool programs.
Assessment and monitoring of skills
is a critical component of effective
educational programming.
Educators need valid and reliable
tools to evaluate students’ progress
in acquiring critical early academic
skills, including oral language.2,3
Effective and efficient measures are
urgently needed for Spanishspeakers.
al.4 demonstrated
Justice et
the
utility and reasonable psychometric
properties of the NAP, a tool they
designed for the assessment and
progress monitoring of Englishspeaking preschoolers’ expressive
language skills within the functional
and meaningful context of narration.
2,
Terry ,
Nicole Patton
University,
2Georgia
State University,
1. To evaluate the performance of
preschool-age Spanish-speaking
English Language Learners’ (ELLs)
on a Spanish adaptation of the
Narrative Assessment Protocol
(NAP-S).
2. To examine the construct,
concurrent and predictive validity of
the NAP-S, long and short forms.
3. To compare the items which appear
most useful for inclusion on the
English and Spanish short forms.
3University
METHODS
Participants included 103 Latino
preschoolers, ages 3-4, whose
primary language was Spanish.
and Christine
3
Fiestas
of Hawaii at Manoa
TABLES & FIGURES
Figures 1 & 2: Factor Analysis of NAP-S long form (27 items)
Figures 3 & 4: Factor Analysis of NAP-S short form (10 items)
All were enrolled in communitybased preschool classrooms
participating in comprehensive
language and literacy projects.
Children produced narrative retells
based on a Mercer Mayer wordless
picture book in the fall and spring.
Narratives were transcribed and
scored for inclusion of 27 features
within five categories: 1) sentence
structure, 2) phrase structure,
3) modifiers, 4) nouns, and 5)
verbs.
Based on research with Spanishspeaking children,e.g., 5 nine
additional features were added to
the NAP-S protocol, long form.
Fall
Spanish
Complex sentence
Negative sentence
Interrogative sentence
Elaborated noun phrase
Compound noun
Prepositional phrase
+
-
+
+
-
NAP-S
Long form
Short form
Advanced modifier
-
+
+
+
-
+
+
+
-
N/A
NOUNS
Noun + modifier agreement
Possessive form
ANALYSIS
Tier-two noun
Copula 'be' verb +
Irregular past tense
Tier-two verbs
Regular imperfect
Transitive verb phrase
Items which did not meet the factor
loading cutoff (.4) were identified
and removed, producing a NAP-S
short form (Table 1).
Regular past tense
Compound verb
Irregular imperfect
Subjunctive
Reflexive verb
Factor analysis was again
conducted with the remaining 10
items of the NAP-S short form
(Figures 3 & 4).
Ditransitive verb phrase
2.
3.
4.
5.
25.73 (11.27) 11.86 (6.75) 94.24 (18.36) 92.00 (9.84)
33.01 (9.20) 15.94 (5.31) 97.58 (16.85) 100.52 (9.08)
1. NAP-S Long Form Fall
+
+
+
+
+
+
-
3. NAP-S Short Form Fall
4. NAP-S Short Form Spring
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
-.039
.922** -.131
-.006
.906** -.077
5. PLS-4 SS Fall
.687*
.629** .584 .557*
6. PLS-4 Raw Fall
.662
.559*
.576 .582* .773**
7. PLS-4 SS Spring
.225
.279
.053
8. PLS-4 Raw Spring
.256
.507** .132 .419* .712**
+
+
.265
.604*
.266
.646** .779**
N/A
+
+
+
+
N/A
N/A
+
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
KEY FINDINGS & CONCLUSIONS
First eigenvalues were higher than the second; a single narrative
skill factor appeared to emerge on NAP-S.
Clinical use of the NAP-S: The short form was highly correlated
(r > .9) with the long form and more efficient to use
Concurrent validity: The fall NAP-S (both short and long) were
strongly correlated with fall PLS-4 Spanish; the spring NAP-S were
only significantly related to spring PLS-4 raw scores.
Predictive validity: The fall NAP-S did not predict scores on the
spring PLS-4 Spanish; it is uncertain whether this reflects
challenges with the NAP-S or .PLS-4 Spanish.
Spanish and English versions of the NAP differ significantly.
REFERENCES
1.
n = 17
n = 28
PLS-4 Spanish
Total SS
Total Raw
N/A
VERBS
Aux + main
Fall M (SD)
Spring
2. NAP-S Long Form Spring
MODIFIERS
Pluralized noun
Correlation analyses were
conducted to evaluate the
concurrent and predictive validity
with the PLS-4 Spanish (Table 2).
English
PHRASE STRUCTURE
Clitic + noun agreement
A factor analysis was first
conducted with all 27 items of the
NAP-S long form. Eigenvalues
and scree plots were evaluated
(Figures 1 & 2).
Table 2: Assessment Data and Correlation Analyses
SENTENCE STRUCTURE
Compound sentence
Spring
Fall
(Justice et al.)4
Adverb
A subgroup of children completed
the Preschool Language Scale-4
Spanish (PLS-4 Spanish).
Spring
Table 1: Items Meeting Factor Loading Cutoff (.4)
Article+noun agreement
OBJECTIVES
Gary
2
Bingham ,
National Center for Educational Statistics (2010). Status and trends in the education of racial and ethnic groups. Retrieved November 1,
2011, http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2010/2010015.pdf.
Compton, D. (2000). Modeling the growth of decoding skills in first-grade children. Scientific Studies of Reading, 4, 219–259.
Gillam, S. L. & Justice, L. (2010, September 21). RTI Progress Monitoring Tools: Assessing Primary-Grade Students in Response-toIntervention Programs. The ASHA Leader.
Justice, L.M., Bowles, R., Pence, K., & Gosse, C. (2010). A scalable tool for assessing children’s language abilities within a narrative
context: The NAP (Narrative Assessment Protocol). Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 25, 218–234.
Gutiérrez-Clellen, V.F., & Simon-Cereijido,G. (2009). Using language sampling in clinical assessments with bilingual children:
Challenges and future directions. Seminars in Speech and Language, 30, 234–245.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Funding was provided by the U.S. Department of Education, the Herzfeld Foundation, Marquette University, the
Atlanta Speech School, the United Way Metro Atlanta, Smart Start and the Woodruff Foundation.
CONTACT INFORMATION
[email protected], [email protected]