A Study of the Comparative Effectiveness of Different Language Tests with Two Groups of Children

Abstract

Summary This study looked at two groups of children each consisting of nineteen four‐year‐olds, one group who were referred for speech therapy and a control group. Their performances were compared on a range of commonly used clinical tests. A large measure of correspondence was found among the tests and within each of the two groups. A degree of discrimination ‐ of value to the clinician ‐ was found between the two groups of children. An argument is developed for the intelligent use of tests supported by qualitative analysis.

Imitative versus spontaneous language assessment: A comparison of CELI and LARSP

“…Imitation-based tests can make a significant contribution to the language assessments currently available. Howell et al (1981) found that CELI was the test which out of five tests most clearly differentiated between a control group of normals and an experimental group of language-delayed children. Similar findings were reported by Sommers et al (1978), using a different elicitation test.…”

“…We have assumed, along with studies such as Menyuk (1963), Labov (1972 and Slobin and Welsh (1973), that elicited imitation allows us to make inferences about a child's production system, and that a certain amount of linguistic processing takes place in repetition tasks. The results of the present study support this view.…”

“…In the literature, studies which directly compare the merits of different tests are relatively few, particularly for tests of expressive language ability. Howell, Skinner, Gray and Broomfield (1981) compared a number of tests, including (on the expressive side) the Reynell Developmental Language Scales (Reynell, 1977) and CELI. They investigated whether the tests would clearly differentiate normal children from children requiring further assessment and remediation.…”

Predictive validity of the K-ABC for exceptional preschoolers

“…Howell, Skinner, and Broomfield (1981) compared the performance of children referred for speech therapy with that of a control group and reported correlations between the TACL and RDLS Verbal Comprehension scale and Expressive Language scale of .99 and .71, respectively.…”

Developing the Speech Therapy Service in Day Nurseries: a Progress Report

“…) However standardized tests still have their place and it has been shown that both the Reynell Developmental Language Scales (Revised Edition: 1977) (RDLS) and the Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language (Carrow 1973) (TACL) are useful for the identification of language problems. (Howell et al, 1981. ) Thus in the light of the current views on assessment it was decided to use two main approaches.…”