Vocabulary performance of Malay school-age children in Malaysia: Starting points to developing language assessments for older children with developmental language disorder (DLD)

The unavailability of language assessments for older Malay children in Malaysia has turned the identification and management of children with language disorders into an arduous process. This has left many children with developmental language disorder undiagnosed and without proper support. This study aims to evaluate the utility of a vocabulary assessment designed for Malay school-age children who predominantly use Malay, focusing on comparisons between typically developing and children at-risk of language disorder to determine whether it can differentiate and highlight qualitative nuances between groups. A total of 118 typically developing children aged 6;0 to 12;11 years (<i>M</i> = 109.20 months; <i>SD</i> = 19.35) completed a newly developed picture pointing receptive and word definition expressive vocabulary task. A small group of children at-risk of language disorder were then matched with typically developing children (<i>n</i> = 15) for comparison. Both receptive and expressive subtests showed good reliability (α = 0.881; α = 0.915 respectively). Findings revealed that vocabulary scores increased with age and that children at-risk of language disorder had significantly poorer scores and qualitative responses compared to their typically developing peers. The vocabulary assessment demonstrates potential for evaluating vocabulary skills among Malay school-age children, with further research needed to establish reference scores for speech-language pathology therapeutic clinical application.