A Review and Critique of the Preschool IDEA Oral Language Test (Pre-IPT): Spanish

The Preschool IDEA Oral Language Proficiency Test: Spanish (Pre-IPT:Spanish) developed by W. Williams and E. Dalton (1989) purports to determine the level of oral language proficiency for preschool children, aged 3 to 5 years. The instrument is designed to identify the dominant language of bilingual or primarily Spanish-speaking children, and the developers indicate that it can be used as a diagnostic tool to help educators determine the appropriate language of instruction for the child. Information is given about the costs of various test packages and other publication data. Testing requires some practice to orient the child to the test format and to establish rapport. The norming study in 1989 was based on responses of 312 children. Reliability and validity studies were conducted as the test was developed. Overall, the Pre-IPT:Spanish seems to be an adequate measure of Spanish oral proficiency. It is appealing to the age for which it was constructed, and is easy to score and interpret. Scores across subjects were consistent, but validity results provide little support of the ability of the Pre-IPT:Spanish to measure verbal performance. The test should therefore be used as part of a more thorough language evaluation battery. It is also noted that the norming sample apparently did not include any special population children; the test is therefore a representation of language development in normal children. (Contains two references.) (SLD)