Abstract
Although the Receptive-Expressive Emergent Language Scale (REEL) is frequently used with young mentally retarded children, there is little evidence that this test validly assesses the language functioning of these children. In this study the construct validity of the REEL was investigated in a sample of 60 mentally retarded children who were between one and three years of age. The results indicated that the language ages obtained from the REEL were generally consistant with samples of these children's communicative behavior and were also related significantly to indices of children's cognitive functioning. The construct validity of the REEL appears to be greater for two- and three-year-old children than for one-year-olds, although the average language ages at each of the three age levels were equivalent to children's average developmental ages.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.