The Development and Preliminary Validation of the Olguin Diagnostic Test of Auditory Perception for Spanish Language-Oriented Children

Abstract

For a total sample of 95 first- and second-grade children with a Spanish-language orientation (SPLO) from a conservative middle-class suburban Southern California community, psychometric information is provided for a newly devised auditory perception test for children from an SPLO culture who are attempting to acquire basic reading, writing, and oral skills in standard American English. Involving both discrimination or reception and reproduction or expression of American English sounds in each of six linguistic categories of juncture, consonants, vowels, digraphs, airflow, and intonation, each of the corresponding scales of the auditory measure entitled the Olguin Diagnostic Test of Auditory Perception provides at least a modest estimate of internal-consistency reliability, and many of the scales furnish promise as valid indicators of the potential success of children from SPLO backgrounds in reading English as measured by a standardized achievement test. Additional research and developmental efforts with SPLO children from diverse backgrounds are needed to improve reliability, to enhance empirical validity, and to clarify construct validity of the scales.