LITMUS-NL: verbal short-term memory and language assessment battery to support the identification of Developmental Language Disorder in multilingual children

If the language development of a bilingual child raises concerns, it is often complicated to determine the origins of the child’s difficulties. Language problems may stem from insufficient exposure to the target language as a result of the distributed nature of a bilingual child’s input, but can also be caused by an inborn Developmental Language Disorder (DLD).  Standardized monolingual norm-referenced measures that are currently used to diagnose DLD cannot adequately disentangle these different origins of language difficulties. Within the European COST-Action IS0804 (2009-2013), a language assessment battery was specifically developed for use in multilingual contexts, supporting the identification of DLD in multilingual children. This test battery is called LITMUS (Language Impairment Testing in Multilingual Settings). The Dutch version, LITMUS-NL, is now available as a digital tool in UU-DAB. LITMUS-NL consists of four different subtests and a short questionnaire:

• Nonword Repetition
• Narrative: comprehension and production
• Vocabulary: comprehension and production of verbs and nouns
• Sentence Repetition
• Questionnaire Risk Factors

For more information in Dutch about LITMUS-NL, click here.

For the test manual in Dutch, click here.

For questions concerning LITMUS-NL, send an e-mail to litmus@uu.nl

LITMUS-NL has been developed into an online version in 2021 by Utrecht University and HU University of Applied Sciences. The project team consists of prof. dr. Elma Blom, prof. dr. Ellen Gerrits, dr. Tessel Boerma , Linda Wouda, MSc, and drs. Anna de Graaf. This project was financed by the K.F. Hein Fund and Dynamics of Youth (UU, Hub 1001 Critical Days) .