The Test of Preschool Vocabulary (TOPV) is an easy-to-administer test that is appealing to preschoolers. The TOPV encourages children to share the words they know. The test measures children’s ability to recognize (receive) and use (express) single words that represent all parts of speech and a variety of basic concepts (things, events, experiences, temporality, relational and substantive processes, and relative position). The words tested are ordered by difficulty level, progressing from familiar words and concepts to less familiar ones.
The TOPV has two subtests, Expressive Vocabulary and Receptive Vocabulary, the results of which are combined to create a composite, the General Vocabulary Index.
Test results can be used to (a) identify children with oral language disorders, (b) diagnose early semantic ability, (c) compare receptive and expressive vocabulary knowledge, (d) monitor language intervention progress, and (e) do research.
The TOPV was normed on a 29 state nationally representative sample of 1,190 children, ages 2-0 through 5-11. It yields percentile ranks, scaled scores, age equivalents, and an index score. TOPV has strong internal consistency and test-retest reliability (coefficients ranging from .82 to .97). It correlates highly (.73 Very Large) with popular criterion measures of spoken vocabulary. Studies of diagnostic accuracy relating to the test’s sensitivity (.73), specificity (.79), classification accuracy (.76), and receiver operating characteristic/area under the curve (ROC/AUC; .82) are reported.
Features of the TOPV
- Easy to learn and administer
- Naturalistic assessment method and high interest materials
- Easy comparison of receptive and expressive vocabulary skills
- Compact–easy to move from site to site
- Ideal for progress monitoring
- Items are appropriate for children of various ethnic, social and economic backgrounds.
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