About the project
The OPIT test is a digital picture book dialogue test that takes about 5 minutes to complete. The adult and the child read a book together on an iPad, and the adult asks questions along the way related to the information given in the story and pictures in the book. The content of the picture book focuses on the importance of friendship.
Objectives
The aim is to investigate whether the OPIT test can be used as a tool to identify weak language skills in different groups of children.
Background
Drawing inferences is about understanding implicit connections, and this skill has an impact on various areas of learning and development. Identifying children who have difficulties with drawing inferences can help initiate interventions more quickly and potentially prevent later learning difficulties in school.
Sub-projects
Norming Group
The purpose of this subproject is to develop knowledge about the inferences drawn by children aged 3-6 years and whether there are differences across age groups.
Second language (L2) learners
The purpose of this subproject is to develop knowledge about the inference skills of L2 learners aged 4-5 years.
Risk of Language Disorders
The purpose of this subproject is to determine how children aged 3-8 years who struggle with language respond to different questions in picture book dialogues with an adult. We want to see if the inference test, OPIT, can help identify children at risk for developmental language disorders (DLD). We also want to examine the relationship between OPIT scores and family risk, age, and the type of inferences the children struggle with. The results will contribute to enhancing knowledge in the field of practice regarding recognizing characteristics in at-risk children so that these children can receive help more quickly. Comparisons of inference skills across groups will also be made.
Financing
Partially financed by RCN.
Cooperation
Statped, Høgskulen på Vestlandet, London University College in England and Universitetet of Oslo.
Tools
- Picturebook on Ipad
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