Author Information
Eugen Zaretsky, Marburg University, GermanyBenjamin P. Lange, IU International University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Christiane Hey, Marburg University Hospital, Germany
Abstract
Nowadays, large-scale language screening programs for children are introduced in many regions of Germany and other countries. To quantify possible unfavourable conditions of the language acquisition, questionnaires for parents and/or kindergarten teachers are often used. Missing questionnaires may distort results of language testing due to unknown sociodemographic or medical conditions of the language acquisition. The current study analysed profiles of children with missing questionnaires to scrutinize whether such missing data are a matter of chance or follow certain statistical patterns. A sample of 2,700 German kindergarten children was re-analysed retrospectively. All children were tested with the language screening “Kindersprachscreening” (“Language screening for children”; KiSS.2), including questionnaires for parents (QP) and kindergarten teachers (QT). Both questionnaires were missing for 87 children (3.2%), only QP for 156 (5.8%), only QT for 26 (1.0%). QP were not filled out for children who acquired German under unfavourable sociodemographic conditions: non-attendance of associations and nursery schools, late age of the German language acquisition, no German spoken at home etc. Such children usually lagged behind in the acquisition of German. QT were more often filled out in evangelical kindergartens than in other kindergartens. QP were missing for children who acquired German under unfavourable sociodemographic conditions (medical conditions were also analysed but yielded no significant results). Missing QT were not associated with any characteristics of children or parents. Instead, kindergartens owned by the Evangelical Church delivered more QT than those owned by the Catholic Church and by cities/towns/villages, probably, due to organisational reasons.
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