Purpose: This study compared the performance of preschool children with SLI and controls on the PPVT-III and PPVT-IV to determine the effect of test revision on identification of language impairment.
Method: Twenty preschool children with SLI and 20 typically developing controls served as the exploratory group. The confirmatory group consisted of 5 children with SLI and 20 controls. Children were administered both test versions in counterbalanced order.
Results: As expected, children with SLI performed significantly worse than their TD peers on both test versions. The discriminate analyses identified an optimal cut-off of 103 for both tests. Using this cut-off, sensitivity of both remained consistent at 80% while specificity dropped from 75% on the PPVT-III to 70% on the PPVT-IV. The confirmatory group’s data support these findings.
Conclusions: The lower diagnostic accuracy of the PPVT-IV highlights the need to avoid assuming newer versions are superior to older in identifying presence or absence of language impairment. Furthermore, the high cutoff for maximizing diagnostic accuracy provides further support that children with SLI are unlikely to score as low as clinicians may expect on these tests.
","abstract_html":"<p><em>Purpose:</em> This study compared the performance of preschool children with SLI and controls on the PPVT-III and PPVT-IV to determine the effect of test revision on identification of language impairment. </p> <p><em>Method: </em>Twenty preschool children with SLI and 20 typically developing controls served as the exploratory group. The confirmatory group consisted of 5 children with SLI and 20 controls. Children were administered both test versions in counterbalanced order. </p> <p><em>Results: </em>As expected, children with SLI performed significantly worse than their TD peers on both test versions. The discriminate analyses identified an optimal cut-off of 103 for both tests. Using this cut-off, sensitivity of both remained consistent at 80% while specificity dropped from 75% on the PPVT-III to 70% on the PPVT-IV. The confirmatory group’s data support these findings. </p> <p><em>Conclusions: </em>The lower diagnostic accuracy of the PPVT-IV highlights the need to avoid assuming newer versions are superior to older in identifying presence or absence of language impairment. Furthermore, the high cutoff for maximizing diagnostic accuracy provides further support that children with SLI are unlikely to score as low as clinicians may expect on these tests. </p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Jara, Sabrina E."],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts","degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":"Communication Science","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Bernard Grela; Frank Musiek","Tammie J. Spaulding"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2011,"date_issued":"2011-05-07T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2011-05-07T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:31:35Z","subjects":["speech pathology","receptive vocabulary","standardized testing","specific language impairment"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/gs_theses/89","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Bernard Grela; Frank Musiek","Tammie J. Spaulding"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Jara, Sabrina E."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2011-05-03T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Communication Science"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["speech pathology","receptive vocabulary","standardized testing","specific language impairment"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/gs_theses/89"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Purpose: This study compared the performance of preschool children with SLI and controls on the PPVT-III and PPVT-IV to determine the effect of test revision on identification of language impairment.
Method: Twenty preschool children with SLI and 20 typically developing controls served as the exploratory group. The confirmatory group consisted of 5 children with SLI and 20 controls. Children were administered both test versions in counterbalanced order.
Results: As expected, children with SLI performed significantly worse than their TD peers on both test versions. The discriminate analyses identified an optimal cut-off of 103 for both tests. Using this cut-off, sensitivity of both remained consistent at 80% while specificity dropped from 75% on the PPVT-III to 70% on the PPVT-IV. The confirmatory group’s data support these findings.
Conclusions: The lower diagnostic accuracy of the PPVT-IV highlights the need to avoid assuming newer versions are superior to older in identifying presence or absence of language impairment. Furthermore, the high cutoff for maximizing diagnostic accuracy provides further support that children with SLI are unlikely to score as low as clinicians may expect on these tests.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["The Effect of Test Revision: Comparing the Performance of Preschool Children with SLI and Typical Controls on the PPVT-III and the PPVT-IV"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Bernard Grela; Frank Musiek","Tammie J. Spaulding"],"dc:creator":["Jara, Sabrina E."],"dc:date.available":["2011-05-03T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Purpose: This study compared the performance of preschool children with SLI and controls on the PPVT-III and PPVT-IV to determine the effect of test revision on identification of language impairment.
Method: Twenty preschool children with SLI and 20 typically developing controls served as the exploratory group. The confirmatory group consisted of 5 children with SLI and 20 controls. Children were administered both test versions in counterbalanced order.
Results: As expected, children with SLI performed significantly worse than their TD peers on both test versions. The discriminate analyses identified an optimal cut-off of 103 for both tests. Using this cut-off, sensitivity of both remained consistent at 80% while specificity dropped from 75% on the PPVT-III to 70% on the PPVT-IV. The confirmatory group’s data support these findings.
Conclusions: The lower diagnostic accuracy of the PPVT-IV highlights the need to avoid assuming newer versions are superior to older in identifying presence or absence of language impairment. Furthermore, the high cutoff for maximizing diagnostic accuracy provides further support that children with SLI are unlikely to score as low as clinicians may expect on these tests.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/gs_theses/89"],"dc:subject":["speech pathology","receptive vocabulary","standardized testing","specific language impairment"],"dc:title":["The Effect of Test Revision: Comparing the Performance of Preschool Children with SLI and Typical Controls on the PPVT-III and the PPVT-IV"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Communication Science"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:31:35Z"}