1. Preschool Language Scale Fourth Edition
Sandra R. Gomes
Caldwell College

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

3. Summary of Presentation
Background 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

4. Background of Preschool Language Scale (PLS)
Developed by Irla Zimmerman, Violette Steiner, and Roberta Pond.
Earlier editions
PLS - 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 edition
PLS-4 -(2002)

5. Overview of PLS-4 Purpose Age range Birth through 6 years, 11 months
Standardized & norm referenced evaluation tool used to assess receptive & expressive language skills
Determines whether deficiencies are primarily receptive or expressive in nature
Assesses behaviors considered to be language precursors
Age range
Birth through 6 years, 11 months

6. Overview of PLS-4 Test Content Core Subscales Supplemental Assessments
Scores
Norm referenced test scores
Qualified Users

7. Overview of PLS-4 Standardization Data PLS-4 is standardized
Sample included 1564 children
39.1% of this sample consists of ethnic minorities
Spanish edition also available with separate norms
Task Analysis Checklist
Ages 2 days to 6 years 11 months
Within each age level, approximately 50% of the sample was male and 50% was female.

8. Test Content Auditory Comprehension
1. 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
Attention
Play
Gesture
Vocabulary
Concepts
Morphology
Syntax
Integrative language
Phonological awareness

9. Video Examples

10. Test Content Expressive Communication
Used to determine how well a child communicates
with others.
Vocal development
Gesture
Social communication
Vocabulary
Concepts
Morphology
Syntax
Integrative language
Phonological awareness

11. Video Examples

12. Test Content

13. Caregiver Questionnaire
“What Your Child Understands”
Does 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?”

14. Administration of PLS-4
Examiner’s Manual
Administration, scoring, & interpretation procedures
Picture Manual
Contains picture stimuli
Record Form
Abbreviated directions for administering, recording, & scoring test items
Manipulatives
Used to facilitate interactions with the child

15. Required Manipulatives
SCAN PAGE

16. Administration of PLS-4
Beginning the test session
Test environment
Determine chronological age
Determine starting point
Basic information about his or her language
Start at least a year prior to child’s age
Task Administration
Can start with either subscale
Generally takes minutes, depending on age of the child and communication skills
Practice Tasks
Included for a number of items on the (AC) and (EC) subscales

17. Administration of PLS-4
Modifying Administration for special populations
Children with severe developmental delays
Children with severe physical/ hearing/ visual impairments
Children who communicate using sign language
Children with autism
Accommodations
Use as criterion referenced information only

18. Scoring PLS-4 Scores Reported Scoring Codes Basal and Ceiling Rules
PLS-4 provides age-based
Standard scores
Percentile ranks
Age equivalents
Scoring Codes
(E)- Elicited (S) - Spontaneous (C ) - Caregiver
Basal and Ceiling Rules
Basal 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

19. Example of correct & incorrect ceiling

20. Practice

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

22. Research Supporting Effectiveness
Restrepo et al. (2001)
This study evaluated the validity of the Spanish edition of the PLS-3
Validity is of increasing importance
Number 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).

23. Restrepo et al. (2001) Continued
Participants
37 children (18 boys & 19 girls)
Mean age of 5 years 6 months
All children were bilingual
Compared 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.
Spanish version needs to continue to be revised until it is valid and reliable for use of Spanish speaking population.

24. Research Supporting Effectiveness
Qi 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 subscales
Independent 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 sample
Findings suggest that the PLS-3 is generally an informative language test for African American preschoolers.

25. Research Supporting Effectiveness
Zimmerman 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 standard score points.

26. Zimmerman et al. (2005) Continued
Nonverbal 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.

27. Pros of Assessment Tool
Test covers a wide range of language issues
Child friendly
Allows for repeated administration over the child’s development
Used extensively by researchers in a broad variety of areas
Enables clinicians to gain insight into a child’s underlying deficits
Administration time is fairly brief
Reliable and valid
Useful tool for evaluating children with special needs
Easy to score

28. Cons of Assessment Tool
Does not go into great depth
Not meant to be used alone to diagnose a language deficit
Unable to make modifications
Administration of assessment tool

29. 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.

30. References
McCauley, 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,
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,
Zimmerman, I. L., & Castilleja, N. F., (2005). The role of language scale for infant and preschool assessment. Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, 11,
Zimmerman, I. L., Steiner, V. G., & Pond R. E., (2002). Preschool Language Scale, 4th edition. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.