F-LARSP. French Language Assessment Remediation and Screening Procedure

This paper presents the adaptation of the LARSP (Language Assessment, Remediation and
Screening Procedure) (Crystal et al., 1976) from English into French based on the analysis of
a corpus of French speaking children ranging between the ages of 18 months and 5 years.
Included is a description of particularities of French morphosyntax and the ensuing
adaptations that are reflected on the new French LARSP (F-LARSP) chart.
The LARSP is a linguistic profile commonly used by researchers and clinicians to carry out
“comprehensive and consistent linguistic analysis” (Ball, 1999); more specifically a detailed
analysis of the grammar and morphology of children’s spontaneous language samples. The
profile was developed in a manner that allows the user to clearly see the child’s grammatical
strengths and weaknesses in relation to their chronological age. This is made possible by the
notion that the order in which syntactic structures are acquired is relatively stable, at least
until the approximate age of 5. Correlation of a child’s morphosyntactic production to their
age provides the therapist with vital information regarding an array of areas including the
possible diagnosis of language impairment, remediation planning, and measuring treatment
efficacy carried out since the last profiling session. The tool is therefore useful for
professionals working with children who are suspected of or who have been diagnosed with
having forms of language difficulties such as Specific Language Impairment (SLI) where
morphology and syntax are commonly affected.
The utility of the LARSP, originally designed for Anglophone use, has led to its adaptation to
several other languages. Those which have been published for an international audience
include Welsh (1988), Dutch (1987), Irish (1990) and Persian (1998).