Standardization of the Language Scale for School-aged Children (LSSC)

Objectives: While the number of school-aged children who need speech-language therapy has been increasing recently, standardized language tests for identifying those with language disorders are still limited. The present study aimed to develop a standardized language test for school-aged children, the Language Scale for School-aged Children (LSSC). Methods: The study was conducted as follows: Composing subtests and developing items based on literature reviews, analyzing the validity of the test and discriminant and difficulty of items, revising the test through two preliminary examinations (1st N=178, 2nd N=182), and standardizing the test (LSSC) with 700 children samples. Results: The LSSC demonstrated high concurrent validity with the REVT-R/-E and high construct validity measured by the correlation of the language quotients of the LSSC and subtests. The reliability was measured by internal consistency, split-half, and test-retest methods which showed that the LSSC is highly reliable test. Conclusion: Results are discussed in terms of developing the procedures, and the validity and reliability of the test. The LSSC will be useful for identifying school-aged children with language disorders as well as for assessing the language ability of school-aged children.