title: The performance of low-income, African American children on the Preschool Language Scale-3.
abstract: This study examined the performance of 701 low-income African American preschoolers (36 to 52 months old) on the Preschool Language Scale-3 (PLS-3, I. L. Zimmerman, V. G. Steiner, & R. E. Pond, 1992). On average, African American children performed about 1 SD below the expected means for their ages on both the Expressive Communication and Auditory Comprehension subscales. Independent sample t tests showed no significant differences between African American children and a comparison sample of 50 European American children. Item analysis was used to examine the potentially problematic items of the PLS-3 for each age cohort of children. We found that 6 items appeared to be particularly difficult for the African American sample. The findings suggest that the PLS-3 is generally an informative language test for African American preschoolers; however, scores should be interpreted with caution.
authors.affiliation: Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA. cqi@wcupa.edu
authors.forename: Cathy Huaqing
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.forename: Ann P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Kaiser
authors.forename: Stephanie E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Milan
authors.forename: Zina
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yzquierdo
authors.forename: Terry B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Hancock
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American; D015982:Bias; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D007807:Language Tests / Q000592:standards*; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011203:Poverty; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012107:Research Design; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D044465:White People