Cate Crowley and several recent graduates of the Teachers College Columbia University speech-language pathology program created and presented this poster at the ASHA convention in Chicago, 2013.
The PLS-5 is designed for use with children aged birth through 7;11 to assess language development and only be used to probe for information and not to identify a disorder or disability.
The Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Fourth Edition (CELF-4) is a standardized test designed to assess the presence of a language disorder or delay and should only be used to probe for information and not to identify a disorder or disability.
This was one of the first of many articles publishing research demonstrating the severe limitations of using commercially available child language tests when assessing children for speech and language disability.
It is important to be as thorough as possible when writing the background section of the evaluation as extenuating circumstances could explain a delay in language development and also help the evaluator differentiate between a delay, disorder, or normal language development, given the circumstances.
