INVESTIGATING THE VALIDITY OF THE CLINICAL LINGUISTIC AUDITORY MILESTONE SCALE

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the validity of the Clinical Linguistic Auditory Milestone Scale (CLAMS) as a screening t est to help physicians detect delays in language development. Language delays in children are often not diagnosed until about 3 years of age because (1) parents may not be aware of what constitutes normal langu age development, (2) diagnosis of a language problem is difficult for physicians to make because they see the child for brief periods of tim e, (3) there is a wide range of what constitutes normal language so pr ofessionals are reluctant to classify a child as delayed without thoro ugh testing. The hypothesis for this investigation was that children w ho have language delays can be identified quickly and easily through t he administration of the CLAMS. Subjects included 99 children between the ages of 1 and 3 years. The procedure had 3 parts: (1) parents comp leted a form consisting of questions such as parent occupation, number of children in the family, birth history, etc., (2) the CLAMS, a pare nt report that can be given while the child is seen by the physician, was administered, (3) the Sequenced Inventory of Communication Develop ment (SICD), was administered to assess receptive and expressive langu age. The purpose for administering the SICD was to obtain a more in-de pth picture of the child's ability to comprehend and use language, the reby providing data to determine the validity of the CLAMS as a screen ing device. Results indicated that the CLAMS is a valid instrument for identifying language delayed children.