Typical Performance on Tests of Language Knowledge and Language Processing of French-Speaking 5-Year-Olds

The evaluation of the language skills of francophone children for clinical and research purposes is complicated by a lack of appropriate norm-referenced assessment tools. The purpose of this study was the collection of normative data for measures assessing major areas of language for 5-year-old monolingual speakers of Quebec French. Children in three age-groups (4;6, 5;0 and 5; 6 years, n=78) were administered tests of language knowledge and linguistic processing, addressing vocabulary, morphosyntax, syntax, narrative structure, nonword repetition, sentence imitation, rapid automatized naming, following directions, and short term memory. The assessment measures were drawn from existing tools and from tools developed for this study, and included formal tests as well as spontaneous language measures. Normative data are presented for the three age groups. Results showed a systematic increase with age for most of the measures. Correlational analysis revealed relationships of varying strength between the measures, indicating some overlap between the measures, but also suggesting that the measures differ in the linguistic skills they tap into. The normative data presented will facilitate the language assessment of French-speaking 5-year-olds, permitting their performance to be compared to the normal range of typically developing monolingual French-speaking children and allowing the documentation of children's profiles of relative strengths and weaknesses within language.