(TOLD-P:5) Test of Language Development–Primary, Fifth Edition

The TOLD-P:5 has six core subtests and three supplemental subtests that measure various aspects of oral language (click TOLD-I:5 to view intermediate version). The results of these subtests can be combined to form composite scores for the major dimensions of language: semantics and grammar; listening, organizing, and speaking; and overall language ability.

Professionals can use the TOLD-P:5 to:

• Identify children who are significantly below their peers in oral language proficiency
• Determine their specific strengths and weaknesses in oral language skills
• Document their progress in remedial programs
• Measure oral language in research studies

Core Subtests

1. Picture Vocabulary—measures a child’s understanding of the meaning of spoken English words (semantics, listening)
2. Relational Vocabulary—measures a child’s understanding and ability to orally express the relationships between two spoken stimulus words (semantics, organizing)
3. Oral Vocabulary—measures a child’s ability to give oral definitions to common English words that are spoken by the examiner (semantics, speaking)
4. Syntactic Understanding—measures a child’s ability to comprehend the meaning of sentences (grammar, listening)
5. Sentence Imitation—measures a child’s ability to imitate English sentences (grammar, organizing)
6. Morphological Completion—measures a child’s ability to recognize, understand, and use common English morphological forms (grammar, speaking)

Supplemental Subtests

1. Word Discrimination—measures a child’s ability to recognize the differences in significant speech sounds (phonology, listening)
2. Word Analysis—measures a child’s ability to segment words into smaller phonemic units (phonology, organizing)
3. Word Articulation—measures a child’s ability to utter important English speech sounds (phonology, speaking)

New Features of the TOLD-P:5

• All-new normative data stratified by age to conform to those of the projected U.S. school-age population for the year 2015 reported in the 2017 ProQuest Statistical Abstract of the United States.
• New studies of the floors, ceilings, and item gradients for the TOLD-P:5’s subtests and composites were conducted, indicating that the test not only measures students’ spoken language abilities, but also detects minor fluctuations in those abilities.
• New studies of test bias (both differential item functioning and subgroup comparison studies) were conducted that indicate the test possesses little or no bias regarding gender, race, and ethnicity.
• New extensive criterion-prediction validity studies were conducted to demonstrate the validity of the TOLD-P:5’s subtests and composites, including diagnostic accuracy analyses. These studies indicated that the test is a highly valid measure of spoken language ability.
• New extensive studies of construct-identification validity, including studies of age differences, subgroup performance, relationship to achievement, and confirmatory factor analysis of the test’s structure, were conducted. These studies indicated that the test’s internal structure is sound and its results are valid for a wide variety of subgroups, as well as for a general population.