Articulation Test Performances of Low-Income, African-American Preschoolers With Communication Impairments

Culturally valid speech and language testing measures for use with African-American children who are speakers of Black English (BE) are limited. An alternative to developing new tests for use with this population is to adapt currently available tests designed for use with standard English speakers. The purpose of this study was to compare the responses of 28 low-income, urban African-American preschoolers from Metropolitan Detroit who were speakers of BE on the Arizona Articulation Proficiency Scale, using a standard English and a BE scoring procedure. The findings indicated that this test does not require a BE scoring adjustment for northern children who are speakers of BE.