Early words, early worries: Is language background related to ‘at-risk’ scores and/or carer concern on the OZI-SF?

Caregiver-reported vocabulary screening is widely used in early childhood settings; yet its accuracy may be influenced by language background. Screening identifies children ‘at-risk’ of communication difficulties needing further assessment. This study compared child ‘risk’ status (<10th centile) and caregiver concern for monolingual and multilingual Australian English-speaking children (n = 1297, aged 10.0–36.9 months) via the OZI-Short Form (OZI-SF) – an authorised short-form MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (MB-CDI) for Australia. Total concept scores were calculated, crediting items understood/produced in any language. Logistic regression analyses examined relationships between child risk status, caregiver concern and language background. Controlling for age, sex and socio-economic status, child risk status was not related to language background. ‘At-risk’ status based on OZI-SF score was associated with caregiver concern regardless of language background. These findings support the potential use of the OZI-SF to identify ‘at-risk’ performance for mono- and multilingual children and underscore alignment between caregiver concern and child risk status.