Design of Spoken Language Tests for Hearing L1 Children

The identification of language problems and subsequent evaluation of interventions depend in part on the availability of useful and psychometrically robust assessments to determine the nature and severity of a child’s problems and monitor progress. This chapter addresses issues involved in the development of spoken language tests for L1 children and the ways in which they have been addressed, with reference to specific examples. Spoken language here refers to oral language, both receptive (comprehension) and expressive (production). The authors draw on a range of existing tests to illustrate the decisions that need to be made when assessing children’s language; they then discuss issues that arise in the development of new tests, drawing on examples of tests that the authors have themselves developed.