Child speech and language assessment and measurement.

The necessity of using standardized and norm-referenced tests in assessing speech and language of impaired children has now been recognized. Thus it seems useful to summarize based on the literature principles for founding such testing methods. These include: a) the necessity for a neuropsycholinguistic model that allows the speech-language pathologist to relate the observed linguistic behavior to underlying language processes, b) the knowledge of the psychometric characteristics required for language tests, and c) a discussion of some of the difficulties or controversed points from clinical practice. Among these latter the following are discussed: 1) measurement versus clinical observation, 2) screening versus exhaustive assessment, 3) language linguistic aspects versus pragmatic dimension, 4) formal tasks versus spontaneous language analysis, 5) linguistic versus metalinguistic assessment, 6) "knowledge-dependent" versus "processing-dependent" tests, 7) early detection of at risk children versus diagnosis of developmental language disorders. Diagnosticians are advised to be aware of the principles to respect when assessing child language.