Preschool Language ScaleFourth EditionSandra R. GomesCaldwell College

Assessment Needs

The limitations of preschool assessments have been well documented (McCauley, 2001). Therefore, reliable and valid assessments are needed.

Summary of PresentationBackground of Preschool Language Scale (PLS) Overview of PLS-4 Test Content & Administration How to score PLS-4 Research supporting the effectiveness of the PLS-4 Pros and Cons

Background of Preschool Language Scale (PLS)Developed by Irla Zimmerman, Violette Steiner, and Roberta Pond.Earlier editionsPLS - Originally developed in 1969 to measure language development of young children PLS-R - Clearer administration & simplified scoring system (1979)PLS-3 - normative data used to develop standard scores & percentile ranks; reliability & validity information; additional test tasks & supplementary test information (1992)Current editionPLS-4 -(2002)

Overview of PLS-4Purpose Standardized & norm referenced evaluation tool used to assess receptive & expressive language skillsDetermines whether deficiencies are primarily receptive or expressive in natureAssesses behaviors considered to be language precursors Age rangeBirth through 6 years, 11 months

Overview of PLS-4Test ContentCore SubscalesSupplemental AssessmentsScores Norm referenced test scores

Qualified Users

Overview of PLS-4Standardization DataPLS-4 is standardizedSample included 1564 children39.1% of this sample consists of ethnic minorities Spanish edition also available with separate norms Task Analysis ChecklistAges 2 days to 6 years 11 monthsWithin each age level, approximately 50% of the sample was male and 50% was female.

Test ContentAuditory ComprehensionAttentionPlayGestureVocabularyConcepts

MorphologySyntaxIntegrative languagePhonological awareness1. To evaluate how much language a child understands 2. Test tasks on this subscale are considered important precursors for language development for infants and toddlers

Video Examples

Test ContentExpressive CommunicationVocal developmentGestureSocial communicationVocabularyConcepts

MorphologySyntaxIntegrative languagePhonological awarenessUsed to determine how well a child communicates with others.

Video Examples

Test Content

Caregiver QuestionnaireWhat Your Child UnderstandsDoes your child momentarily look at a person who is talking to him or her? If yes, who does your child look at?

Does your child look at you for more than 2 seconds? If yes, describe a situation when your child does this.

Does your child respond to words like stop or wait?

Does your child put toys in his or her mouth?

Does your child understand words like in, off, or out of?

Administration of PLS-4Examiners ManualAdministration, scoring, & interpretation proceduresPicture ManualContains picture stimuli Record FormAbbreviated directions for administering, recording, & scoring test itemsManipulativesUsed to facilitate interactions with the child

Required ManipulativesSCAN PAGE

Administration of PLS-4 Beginning the test sessionTest environmentDetermine chronological age Determine starting pointBasic information about his or her languageStart at least a year prior to childs age Task AdministrationCan start with either subscale Generally takes 25-40 minutes, depending on age of the child and communication skills Practice TasksIncluded for a number of items on the (AC) and (EC) subscales

Administration of PLS-4 Modifying Administration for special populationsChildren with severe developmental delaysChildren with severe physical/ hearing/ visual impairmentsChildren who communicate using sign languageChildren with autism

AccommodationsUse as criterion referenced information only

Scoring PLS-4Scores ReportedPLS-4 provides age-basedStandard scoresPercentile ranksAge equivalentsScoring Codes(E)- Elicited (S) - Spontaneous (C ) - CaregiverBasal and Ceiling RulesBasal achieved when child has passed 3 consecutive numbered tasks (Scores of 1 marked in 3 consecutive boxes)Ceiling is achieved when the child has earned a score of 0 on 7 consecutive numbered tasks

Example of correct & incorrect ceiling

Practice

Computing Scores Refer to page 115 Refer to page 117 & 118

Research Supporting Effectiveness Restrepo et al. (2001) This study evaluated the validity of the Spanish edition of the PLS-3 Validity is of increasing importanceNumber of Hispanic children increases in schools each year; therefore, the need for reliable, valid measures for this population becomes more urgent (Restrepo et al., 2001).

Restrepo et al. (2001)Continued

Participants 37 children (18 boys & 19 girls)Mean age of 5 years 6 monthsAll children were bilingualCompared performances of the same participants on the English and Spanish version of the PLS-3

Concluded that the test was inadequate because it was based on English rather than Spanish Language development data.

Research Supporting EffectivenessQi et al. (2003)Study examined the performance of 701 low-income African American preschoolers (36 to 52 months old)On average, African American children performed about 1 SD below the expected means for their ages on both subscalesIndependent sample t tests showed no significant differences between African American children & a comparison sample of 50 European American children.6 items appeared to be particularly difficult for African American sampleFindings suggest that the PLS-3 is generally an informative language test for African American preschoolers.

Research Supporting EffectivenessZimmerman et al. (2005) PLS-3 & PLS-4 administered to the same children, similar mean and SDs were found which supported the PLS-4 content.PLS-4 differentiated between 44 children identified with autism spectrum disorders and 44 typically developing children. Differences ranged from 36-39 standard score points.

Zimmerman et al. (2005) ContinuedNonverbal children with autism demonstrated greatest lags on language tasks targeting concepts & social communication.Children who were verbal demonstrated significant difficulties on morphology, syntax, social communication & integrated language skills.In summary, PLS-4 proved to be sensitive to differences in language abilities for children with a variety of diagnoses, including developmental and language delays, autism, & hearing impairment.

Pros of Assessment ToolTest covers a wide range of language issuesChild friendlyAllows for repeated administration over the childs developmentUsed extensively by researchers in a broad variety of areasEnables clinicians to gain insight into a childs underlying deficitsAdministration time is fairly brief Reliable and validUseful tool for evaluating children with special needs Easy to score

Cons of Assessment ToolDoes not go into great depthNot meant to be used alone to diagnose a language deficitUnable to make modificationsAdministration of assessment tool

Summary Overall, PLS-4 is a well- designed and carefully developed instrument, meeting a standard of quality substantially above that of most other commercial tests. A user can be quite confident of the accuracy of scores and appropriateness of using PLS-4 scores as indicators of language skills of preschool children. (Zimmerman et. al, 2005)

It is a useful diagnostic and research tool that can be used to identify current comprehension and expressive language skills & can be used to measure changes in language skills over time.

ReferencesMcCauley, R. (2001). Assessment of language disorders in children. Mahwah, NJ: Laurence Erlbaum Associates.Qi, C. H., Kaiser, A. P., Milan, S. E., Yzquierdo, Z., & Hancock, T. B., (2003). The performance of Low-Income, African American Children on the Preschool Language Scale-3. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 46, 576-590.Restrepo, M., & Silverman, S. W., (2001). Validity of the Spanish preschool language scale-3 for use with bilingual children. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 10, 382-393.Zimmerman, I. L., & Castilleja, N. F., (2005). The role of language scale for infant and preschool assessment. Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, 11, 238-246.Zimmerman, I. L., Steiner, V. G., & Pond R. E., (2002). Preschool Language Scale, 4th edition. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.

***********************Spanish version needs to continue to be revised until it is valid and reliable for use of Spanish speaking population.*******