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English and Spanish versions created by Irla Lee Zimmerman, PhD, Violette G. Steiner, BS , and Roberta Evatt Pond, MA
The Preschool Language Scale, Fifth Edition (PLS-5) is a language screener assessment to evaluate the development of early interpersonal communication skills (e.g., verbal communication, active listening, and body gestures), language comprehension (e.g., understanding the words meaning and how they're put together within a language), and expressive language (e.g., ability to label objects, retell a story, and answer questions) based on structured tasks and play-based settings.
This language screener is considered to be appropriate for young children ranging from birth to 7:11 of age, and it can be performed in about 40 to 60 minutes.
In regards to its application, the PLS-5 can be administered in person or through teletherapy by the clinician who will ask questions and give tasks for the child to respond verbally or through body gestures such as pointing.
Characterized as norm-referenced, it provides results that include standard scores, percentile rankings, and age equivalents for the auditory comprehension (AC) and expressive communication (EC) scales, as well as Total Language (TL).
Auditory comprehension assesses the scope of a child’s skills in understanding basic vocabulary, concepts, morphology, and early syntax.
Expressive communication analyzes a child’s ability to use concepts that describe objects, express quantity, and use specific prepositions, and sentence structure.
Total language evaluates the range of a child’s skills in communicating with others and in comprehending language.
Strength:
Strength:
One of the advantages of the PLS-5 is that it can be used for bilingual Spanish-speaking children. There is a Spanish PLS-5 test version that can be administered. The Spanish PLS-5 also has a Dual Language Administration to assess the child's bilingual language skills in a singular score. This is beneficial to determining if there is a language disorder or a language delay as the disorder would appear in both languages.
This screener was included to identify at-risk children for language disorders.
Publication date: 2012
Age range: Birth to 7:11
Scores/Interpretation: Total language, auditory comprehension, expressive communication, standard scores, percentile ranks, language age equivalents
Completion time: 20-45 minutes (Spanish Administration Only); 20-65 minutes (Dual Language Administration)
Administration: Examiner engagement and verbal responses to object and visual stimuli
Scoring options: Manual scoring
Weakness:
Weakness:
One of the disadvantages of the PLS-5 is that it excludes children with motor/sensory deficits. If this test is administered to this population, then their scores can be affected. These children may get tired or frustrated to point for a long period of time resulting in scores that are not reflective of their full potential and capabilities. Additionally, the original sample population this test was used on did not consider children with motor/sensory impairments so therefore results for assessing them cannot be reliable.
References
Preschool language scales: Fifth Edition Spanish. Preschool Language Scales 5 Ed Spanish | PLS-5 Spanish. (n.d.). https://www.pearsonassessments.com/store/usassessments/en/Store/Professional-Assessments/Speech-%26-Language/Preschool-Language-Scales-%7C-Fifth-Edition-Spanish/p/100000401.html?tab=product-details
Preschool Language Scales: Fifth Edition. PLS-5 Preschool Language Scales 5th Edition. (n.d.). https://www.pearsonassessments.com/store/usassessments/en/Store/Professional-Assessments/Speech-%26-Language/Preschool-Language-Scales-%7C-Fifth-Edition/p/100000233.html?tab=product-details
Pearson. (n.d.). Preschool Language Scales: Fifth Edition Spanish. Preschool Language Scales 5 Ed Spanish | PLS-5 Spanish. https://www.pearsonassessments.com/store/usassessments/en/Store/Professional-Assessments/Speech-%26-Language/Preschool-Language-Scales-%7C-Fifth-Edition-Spanish/p/100000401.html
Project, L. (n.d.). Test review: PLS-5 English. LEADERSproject. https://www.leadersproject.org/2013/11/25/test-review-pls-5-english/
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