Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (CASL-2)

Instrument Name: Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (CASL-2)

Abbreviation: CASL-2

Points for Consideration:

This is a strong clinical and research tool, with a wide range of ages that can be assessed using the same core tests. It is a widely used assessment. Investigators should be aware that it has no caregiver observational rating, and no information for which thresholds for improvement/deterioration have been established, possibly making it harder to determine meaningful/functional change in status. It is comprehensive and performance-based.

Description of Tool:

The Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (CASL) is a PerfO developed to measure oral language processing skills of comprehension and expression in children and adults aged 3-21 years (Language Development Disorders). It is composed of 14 individual subtests (840 total items) administered in one comprehensive battery.

Minimum Qualification Required by COA Administrator: PhD or MA

Comment:

*The CASL-2 is the second edition having been updated from the Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (CASL)

*The CASL-2 consists of 14 stand-alone tests that are individually administered in one comprehensive battery

*There are two CASL-2 record forms, the Comprehensive Form and the Preschool Form. The Preschool Form is aimed at children aged 3-6 and they complete 10 of the 14 tests

Year: 2017

Objective of Development:

To measure oral language processing skills of comprehension and expression across four categories: lexical/symantic, syntactic, supralinguistic, and pragmatic

Population of Development: Age range (therapeutic indication):

3-21 years (Language Development Disorders)

Pediatric Population(s) in which COA has been used:

Nervous System Diseases; Wounds and Injuries; Otorhinolaryngologic Diseases; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Mental Disorders; Congenital, Hereditary, and Neonatal Diseases and Abnormalities

COA type:

Number of Items 840

Mode of Administration:

Data Collection Mode:

Time for Completion: 5-10 minutes for each subtest 45 minutes for the General Language Ability Index

Response Scales: Dichotomous: Correct/Incorrect (1/0 point) 3-point Likert/Likert-type Scale ranging from 0 to 2

Summary of Scoring:

Available Scores:
Scores by subtests converted in standard scores age-based and percentile rank. Each individual test includes their own individually normed standard scores.
Index scores by combining scores by subtests: General language ability index, receptive language index, expressive language index, lexical/semantic index, syntactic index, supralinguistic index
Cut-off: Deficient (< 70) Below Average (70-84) Average (85-115) Above Average (116-130) Exceptional > 130)

Weighting:
No

Score Direction:
Higher score = Better comprehension and expression

Evidence of Literature Review: None identified

Evidence of Instrument Review: Yes

Evidence of Clinical or Expert Input: Yes

Evidence of concept elicitation in target patient population: None identified

Evidence of a Saturation Grid: None identified

Evidence for Selection of Data Collection Method: Yes

Recall/Observation Period:

Evidence for Selection of Reponse Options: Yes

Evidence of cognitive interviewing of draft instrument in target patient population: None identified

Evidence of Preliminary Scoring of Items and Domains: Yes

Evidence related to respondent and administrator burden: Yes

Evidence of a Conceptual Framework: Yes

Evidence of an item-tracking matrix: None identified

Evidence related to item selection: Yes

Evidence of re-testing the final version: Yes

Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha): Yes

Evidence of internal consistency:

Test-retest Reliability (ICC):

From the manual
- Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC):
Individual tests: ranging from 0.73 to 0.94 (median= 0.85)
Index scores: ranging from 0.88 to 0.96 (median= 0.92)
Differences between the means at time and time 2 were not significant (effect sizes, ranging from 0.05 to 0.18)
- Was a definition of stability applied to identify stable patients: Not stated
- Time frame or interval between the two administrations: 2 weeks
- Population/Disease: Patients with language disorder, hearing impairment, autism spectrum disorder, social (pragmatic communication disorder), intellectual disability, learning disability and developmental delay; n= 271

Inter-rater/ inter-interviewer reliability (kappa):

From the manual
- Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC): 0.86 to 0.97
- Population/Disease: Not stated

Evidence of test-retest or inter-rater reliability: Yes

Concurrent validity (convergent, divergent):

[From https://www.wpspublish.com/casl-2-comprehensive-assessment-of-spoken-language-second-edition] The CASL-2 tests and index scores correlate in expected ways with the CASL, OPUS, OWLS-II, and CELF-5, thereby yielding evidence of convergent validity. Also, the CASL-2 standard scores distinguish typically developing individuals from clinic-referred individuals, including those with expressive and/or receptive language disorder, hearing impairment, autism spectrum disorder, social (pragmatic) communication disorder, intellectual disability, learning disability, and developmental delay.

Known-group validity:

From the manual
Known-groups validity:
- Measure/Groups of patients: Comparisons of the 14 CASL-2 tests and the 6 index scores between a clinical sample composed of patients with language disorder, hearing impairment, autism spectrum disorder, social (pragmatic communication disorder), intellectual disability, learning disability and developmental delay and control group. Patients in both control were paired with case of the same age, sex, and parent education level.
- A priori hypotheses: It was hypothesized that the clinical groups would perform significantly below that of the typically developing matched controls, supporting that the CASL-2 scores are sensitive to the language impairments and delays known to affect the clinical groups of interest
- Were hypotheses confirmed: Yes
- Results: MANOVA
In all comparisons, the mean scores (data available in the manual) were statistically different from the matched control groups. All means were significantly lower than those of the typically developing group across all tests and index scores (p<0.001 for all results) with the majority of comparisons having large effect sizes - Population/Disease: Clinical groups and standardization sample ; n= 542; aged: not stated Predictive validity: - Measure/Groups of patients: Detection of skill deficits between clinical groups and standardization sample - A priori hypotheses: Not stated - Were hypotheses confirmed: Not applicable - Results: The CASL-2 GLAI score (area under ROC curve = .891, p<.001) provided statistically significant improvement in detecting clinical disorders. - Population/Disease: Clinical groups and standardization sample ; n= Not stated, aged: not state

Evidence of Translatability Assessment: None identified

Evidence related to missing data: None identified

Evidence for Selection of Recall Period: None identified

Evidence of Administration Instructions and Training Provided: Yes

Evidence of concurrent validity: Yes

Evidence of known-groups validity: Yes

Evidence of ability to detect change over time: None identified

Ability to detect change (Responsiveness):

None identified

Responder Thresholds:

None identified

Evidence of responder thresholds: None identified

Carrow-Woolfolk E. Comprehensive assessment of spoken language-Second Edition. WPS. 2017 (Abstract: https://www.wpspublish.com/casl-2-comprehensive-assessment-of-spoken-language-second-edition)

See (PubMed results): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=%22Comprehensive+Assessment+of+Spoken+Language%22&sort=date&sort_order=asc

None identified

Original: English for the USA

Translations: None identified

None identified

Author:
Elizabeth Carrow-Woolfolk
Website: http://www.elizabethcarrowwoolfolk.com/

Contact:
WPS Headquarters
625 Alaska Avenue
Torrance
CA 90503-5124
USA
Contact Form: https://pages.wpspublish.com/contact-us

Copyright: WPS is the copyright holder

CoU:
*With fees for academic/non profit research
*With fees for commercial/pharmaceutical companies
*With the signature of a contract/agreement: Permissions are granted only on a case-by-case bases
*Other: no translation of the CASL-2 is permitted for this assessment. For further information, please contact WPS Rights & Permissions (rights@wpspublish.com)

WPS' CASL-2 webpage: https://www.pearsonassessments.com/store/usassessments/en/Store/Professional-Assessments/Developmental-Early-Childhood/Comprehensive-Assessment-of-Spoken-Language-%7C-Second-Edition/p/100001922.html?tab=ordering

Available to purchase from WPS