Adapting the Welch Emotional Connection Screen (WECS) into Minimal English and seven other minimal languages

Abstract

The Welch Emotional Connection Screen (WECS) is an instrument for assessing mother–infant Emotional Connection in clinical settings. Trained observers rate mother and infant on four scales (Attraction, Vocal Communication, Facial Communication, and Sensitivity/Reciprocity), culminating in an overall evaluation of emotional connection. The WECS and its training materials use many complex and non-translatable expressions, for example ‘close physical proximity’, ‘positive vocalisations’, ‘seamless interactions’, which are not ideal for use in the full range of clinical settings. This chapter reports on collaborative research aimed at producing simply-phrased and cross-translatable descriptions in Minimal English. Different aspects of the adaptation process are described: conceptual, linguistic, and practical, including translatability testing into Finnish, Spanish and Polish. The project provides a model of how psychometric test procedures can be improved using Minimal English.