An Evaluation of the Test of Early Language Development as a Measure of Receptive and Expressive Language

Abstract
The Test of Early Language Development (TELD) is a broad range language screening device for young children. Little information is available concerning its use with developmentally delayed children. In the present study, TELD scores for 85 developmentally delayed preschool and kindergarten-age students were compared with other measures of language and cognition in a longitudinal study. The TELD scores documented the language delay, and correlated strongly with other language measures. The scores also had good stability over an 8-month interval. However, the division of the test into expressive and receptive subscores, based on the labeling of items in the test manual, was not supported by concurrent or predictive correlations, utilizing the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised as a receptive criterion measure and Mean Length of Utterance as an expressive criterion measure. This lack of dissociation may be due to the extensive use of elicited imitation as an expressive measure on the TELD, but it is probably also true that expressive and receptive abilities are not functionally dissociable. By itself, the TELD failed to accurately classify children who had been clinically classified as language-delayed; the errors were primarily omissions of such children. In addition to these statistical analyses, biases and other diflqculties with specific items and scoring rules are noted.

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