Establishment Of Validity Of A Test For Articulation And Phonological Disorders Among Bilingual Children In Punjab And Baluchistan

Introduction: A Test for Articulation and Phonology (TAAPU) in Urdu was developed in a descriptive study1 by the researcher to assess articulation and phonological disorders. It was piloted and field tested in 2012 by the researcher to determine its validity for Urdu speaking school-age children with Articulatory and Phonological Disorders in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. As Urdu is the national language of Pakistan, so TAAPU was expected to be generalized in other regions of Pakistan as well. Urdu has more than 60 million first language speakers and 100 million total speakers in more than 20 countries. Urdu is the most widely understood language in Pakistan, therefore, can be considered as a major medium of interaction in the urban areas of the country2. Therefore school-age children are bilingual in urban areas; they can speak and understand both their mother tongue and Urdu language. Pronunciations in the Urdu language vary in different regions due to diverse characteristics of that region. Clinical Question: When assessing speech sound production among bilingual Punjabi-Urdu and Baluchi-Urdu speaking children with articulation and phonological disorders whether the developed Test for Articulation and Phonology in Urdu (TAAPU) executed to be a valid test or not? Study Design: The research presents the results of an experimental study conducted to develop and determine the validity of Test for Articulation and Phonology in Urdu (TAAPU) for assessment of APD among bilingual children (4-8 years of age) in two provinces (Punjab and Baluchistan) of Pakistan. Setting Duration: The duration of the study was 7 months from March 2016 to October 2016. The study was conducted in speech therapy clinics of Punjab and Baluchistan (in the cities of Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Sargodha and Quetta). The population of interest was 4-8 years old bilingual children with APD.  Methodology: The study TAAPU was standardized by executing it on bilingual children of the two provinces of Pakistan. Stratified Random Sampling technique was deployed for the collection of data from the two provinces of Pakistan; from each of the two strata, a sample of 35 was selected. Primary data was collected from Punjab province by the researcher and data from Baluchistan was collected by a local speech therapist on behalf of the researcher. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS- Version 21.0) was used in the study to determine the validity and reliability of TAAPU in Punjab and Baluchistan. Results:  The data analysis results illustrated that TAAPU is a valid tool for assessment of APD in bilingual children who interact in the Urdu language in Punjab and Baluchistan along with their mother tongue. Keywords: Test for Articulation and Phonology in Urdu (TAAPU), Articulation and Phonological Disorder (APD), phonological acquisition and bilingual children