A comparative study of children's performance on the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities and the Token Test

The Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA) and the Token Test (TT) were administered to 24 5- and 6-yr-olds. There was a significant positive correlation between performance on the TT and only 2 of the 12 subtests of the ITPA: Grammatic Closure (p less than .05) and Sound Blending (p less than .05). TT scores did not correlate significantly with any of the ITPA subtests at the representational level of language. These findings support the conclusion of Williams and Marks (J. Speech Hear. Res., 1972, 15, 323ff) on the lack of validity of tests of receptive auditory comprehension which employ simultaneous presentation of stimuli through visual and auditory modalities and the arbitrary selection of one of the channels (auditory) as the primary process being measured. Implications for clinical use of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and the TT were discussed and suggestions made for future research.