Social Language Development Test - Elementary (SLDT-E:NU)

The Social Language Development Test–Elementary: Normative Update (SLDT-E: NU) assesses language-based skills of social interpretation and interaction with friends, the skills found to be most predictive of social language development. Specifically, it measures the language required to appropriately infer and express what another person is thinking or feeling within a social context, to make multiple interpretations, take mutual perspectives, and negotiate with and support their peers. These tasks reflect the developmental refinement of social language comprehension and expression and differentiate typically developing children from those with autism spectrum disorder.

 

• Updated norms based on the 2015 U.S. Census.

• New standard score metric for subtests and composites (M=10, SD=3; M=100, SD=15).

• All new item analysis and item bias studies provide convincing evidence of content-description validity.

• All new reliability and validity studies were prepared, including diagnostic accuracy analyses, which are considered the most rigorous techniques for establishing validity today. These analyses involve the computation of sensitivity and specificity indexes and the receiving operating characteristic/area under curve statistic (ROC/AUC).

 

The test has four subtests, which require students to make inferences, interpret photographed scenes, and explain how they would resolve problems with peers. The Examiner’s Manual includes a comprehensive discussion of the test’s theoretical and research-based foundation, item development, standardization, administration and scoring procedures, norms tables, and guidelines for using and interpreting the test’s results. Reliability and validity studies were conducted out with individuals with normal language abilities and individuals who had previously been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

 

The average coefficient alpha ranges between .77 and .92 for the subtests and is .94 for the Social Language Development Index. Studies were conducted to examine the ability of the test to differentiate students who are autistic from those who are not. The results demonstrate that a Social Language Development Index cutoff score of 90 resulted in a sensitivity of .82, a specificity of .86, and a receiver operating characteristic/area under the curve of .91.