The Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF-5) was designed to assess a student’s language and communication skills in a variety of contexts, determine the presence of a language disorder, describe the nature of the language disorder, and plan for intervention or treatment.
Category: Sensitivity and Specificity
Sensitivity and specificity are measures of diagnostic accuracy. Sensitivity refers to a test’s ability to identify a “true positive” as positive for the quality being tested. Specificity is the test’s ability to identify a “true negative” as negative. In the case of language tests, sensitivity refers to the test’s ability to identify children who are language impaired as language impaired. Conversely, specificity is the test’s ability to identify children who are typically developing as typically developing. McCauley & Swisher determined that acceptable levels of sensitivity and specificity should be at least 80%.
Test Review: CELF-4 Spanish
TestReview_CELF 4 Spanish_1.8.14.pdf
The Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Spanish, Fourth Edition [CELF-4, Spanish] is a standardized test designed to assess the presence of a language disorder or delay in Spanish speaking children aged 5-21.
Test Review: CELF-P2 (Spanish)
The Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals- Preschool, Second Edition [CELF-P2] Spanish is designed to assess the presence of a language disorder or delay in Spanish speaking students aged 3;0-6;11.
Test Review: Proceed with Caution PLeaSe- PLS-5, English Construct Validity Concerns
Proceed with Caution PLeaSe- Construct Validity Concerns in the PLS-5 English.pdf
Two recent graduates of the Teachers College Columbia University speech-language pathology program, supervised by Cate Crowley, created and presented this poster at the ASHA convention in Chicago, 2013. Read More
Construct Validity of the PLS-5
Alexandra Gibson and Elana Winters presented this poster at ASHA’s convention in Chicago in November 2013. Alexandra and Elana created this poster based on work they did in the Assessment and Evaluation course at Teachers College Columbia Uniersity. This course is required as part of the master’s SLP program there.
In that course the students must analyze the most widely used standardized tests to identify disorder/disability for children and adolescents. They analyze the tests’ validity, reliability, and significant biases among other factors. The information for the analysis is primarily from the test itself—generally the interpretive and technical manuals and the other information provided to anyone who purchases the test. That material is analyzed in light of the standards of the field, including the work of Dollaghan, Vance and Plante, Restrepo, and going back to even McCauley and Swisher‘s work of 1984. In the class students find and incorporate into their analysis any research on current or older versions of the test. Another part of the task is to analyze the significant biases including cultural and linguistic biases and biases related to socio-economic background.
Test Review: Bayley-III
The Bayley Scale of Infant and Toddler Development (Bayley-III) is designed to assess the developmental functioning of infants and young children 1-42 months of age. Read More
Test Review: PLS-5 English
The PLS-5 is designed for use with children aged birth through 7;11 to assess language development and identify children who have a language delay or disorder. Read More
Test Review: PLS-5 Spanish
PLS-5 Spanish (2012)_Pub_10.29.13.pdf
The PLS-5 Spanish is designed to determine the presence and severity of a receptive, expressive, or receptive-expressive language delay or disorder in monolingual Spanish speakers or bilingual Spanish-English speaking children from birth to 7 years 11 months. Read More
