Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals | Fifth Edition

CELF-5

Elisabeth H. Wiig, PhD, Eleanor Semel, EdD, Wayne A. Secord, PhD

CELF-5 provides clinicians with a streamlined, flexible battery to assess semantics, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics for students ages 5-21. CELF-5 features structured and authentic tests of language ability (including observational and interactive measures) for a complete picture of students' language skills. Guidance on using this test in your telepractice.

Publication date: Fall, 2013

Age range: 5:0 –21:11

Scores/interpretation: Core Language Score, Receptive Language, Expressive Language, Language Structure and Language Content standard scores, percentile ranks, growth scale values, and age equivalents.

Qualification level: B Additional information

Completion time: 30–45 minutes for the Core Language Score. Total assessment: variable.

Administration: Verbal response to picture stimuli

Scoring options: Q-global® Web-based Administration, Scoring, and Reporting; and manual scoring

Telepractice: Guidance on using this test in your telepractice

The new CELF-5 is a comprehensive battery of 16 standalone tests that provides a streamlined, flexible and interactive approach to language assessment.

Benefits

Comprehensive, with measures that include structured, interactive, and observational/interview-based tasks.
Flexible--administer only the tests you need to address referral and clinical concerns
Now Available! Standard scores available for Reading Comprehension, Structured Writing, and the Pragmatics Activities Checklist.
Compare written skills to oral language skills.
Now available in print and digital editions (on Q-global and Q-interactive)

Features

CELF-5 provides highly accurate diagnostic information with current normative data (see Technical Information).
Item analysis of performance on individual tests.
Automated scoring available in real time on Q-interactive or with item or subtest raw scores entered on Q-global.
Digital editions offer 24/7 secure, web-based access on Q-global or Q-interactive, ideal for telepractice and in-person digital test administration.
Q-interactive and Q-global provide automated Graphical and narrative reporting data.

Tests included

Observational Rating Scale
Sentence Comprehension
Linguistic Concepts
Word Structure
Word Classes
Following Directions
Formulated Sentences
Recalling Sentences
Understanding Spoken Paragraphs
Word Definitions
Sentence Assembly
Semantic Relationships
Reading Comprehension
Structured Writing
Pragmatics Profile
Pragmatics Activities Checklist

Samples

The following resources are available for CELF-5.

Test Information

Technical Information

Interviews & Presentations

Interview with Dr. Wayne Secord

Case Studies

CELF-5 on Q-interactive at a Glance:

Available With

Standard, Speech, Classroom, & Experiential Licenses

Subtest Pricing

View pricing here

Scoring and Reporting

Score Report
Excel Report

Materials Needed

View the Pricing & Ordering tab and open the Q-interactive section

Benefits of CELF-5 on Q-interactive

Create a custom battery by combining CELF-5 subtests with other tests such as the GFTA-3 and PPVT-4.
Obtain scaled scores immediately after finishing a subtest, to increase scoring speed and accuracy.
Improve accuracy thanks to automated scoring and automated start points and discontinue rules.
Engage children by displaying stimuli on the iPad.
Listen to your client's responses after the assessment session via our audio recording feature.
Automatically generate score reports that include item analyses.

How Can I Buy CELF-5 on Q-interactive?

New customers:

Annual Q-interactive licenses can be purchased using our online order form or by calling Customer Support at 1-800-627-7271. See the Q-interactive pricing tab for more information on license options.

Current Q-interactive customers:

If you want to add the CELF-5 to your account, visit our online order form and select the "Add test(s) to existing account" option. You may also call Customer Support at 1-800-627-7271.

FAQs

Select a question below to see the response.

CELF-5

What does CELF-5 have in common with previous editions of CELF?

What has changed in CELF-5 compared to previous editions?

Battery of tests: The CELF-5 is a battery of 16 tests (each age group takes 10 tests) Test Changes: Revisions: All of the tests have some revisions to the wording or artwork based on clinician feedback and research data.

Major revisions to the CELF-4 subtests include:

Splitting the Concepts and Following Directions subtests into two different tests.
Word Classes: there is no longer an expressive portion of the test.
Pragmatics Profile now reports scaled scores.
Expressive Vocabulary, Word Associations, Rapid Automatic Naming, Number Repetition and Familiar Sequences have been deleted from the CELF-5.
New tests: Reading Comprehension and Writing.
New Checklist: Pragmatic Activities Checklist (completed based on activity-based interaction with the student; is a deep dive into nonverbal and verbal behaviors that the student exhibits so that you can better plan intervention.
Basals, ceilings, raw score/scaled scores based on current research data.

Normative data

Based on current U.S. Census figures.
Large minority population.

Sentence Comprehension

Is this a new subtest? Is it something other than auditory comprehension at the sentence level rather than the paragraph level?

Following Directions

One reason I stopped using the CELF is that the Concepts and Following Directions subtest was so heavily dependent on a child having adequate attention and memory that it often pulled a score down far below what made sense for a child. Children who have adequate concept knowledge and language skills but poor attention are penalized by this subtest. How does the new FD subtest compare to the old CFD subtest?

The CELF-5 splits Concepts and Following Directions into two different subtests. One focuses on comprehension of concepts; the other is a set of items that requires a child to point to pictures following directions that are increasingly complex (1, 2, and 3 step commands.) Examples: "Before pointing to the last square, point to the first circle."

A student with a language disorder may have appropriate concept knowledge for his or her age, but experience difficulty in the classroom when he or she cannot integrate concept knowledge into increasingly long and complex directions typically given by teachers in the classroom. The difficulty may lie in understanding long complex directions and/or attention and memory deficits. You will need to work with the psychologist on your team to better understand the role of memory and attention that contribute to the child's deficits in comprehending complex directions.

Formulated Sentences

While I understand the rationale behind this subtest for measuring syntax skills, I have found that children who have poor attention (and therefore memory) score more poorly on this subtest than is indicated by their conversational syntax.

The CELF-5 splits Concepts and Following Directions into two different subtests. One focuses on comprehension of concepts; the other is a set of items that requires a child to point to pictures, following directions that are increasingly complex (1, 2, and 3 step commands.) Examples: "Before pointing to the last square, point to the first circle."

There are two ways to look at a child's morphosyntax abilities: Formulated Sentences and Recalling Sentences. Formulated Sentences gives you information about a child's ability to construct a sentence without auditory cues; Recalling Sentences gives you information about a child's ability to use his or her knowledge of linguistic rules--to repeat a long sentence, a child has to have mastery of the underlying grammatical structures rather than depend on memory alone. Having both tests enables you to do some differential diagnosis—is a child capable of producing a morphosyntactically complex sentences on his own, but not in a sentence repetition task (then it may be an attention or memory problem) or is the child unable to do either task well? If the latter is the case, memory and attention may not be the issues causing the problem.

Understanding Spoken Paragraphs
Word Definitions
Sentence Assembly
Semantic Relationships

Written Language (Reading Comprehension and Writing)

Is the age range for Reading and Writing the same as the other CELF-5 tests?

Are the Reading and Writing subtests required to obtain composite scores for certain ages?

Core Language Skills

If a Core Language score of 64 is obtained when administering the CELF-4, should the CELF-4 then be administered in entirety to optimally identify strengths and weaknesses (if also being used to classify a student)? Is the Core Language Standard Score ever sufficient in and of itself?

Professional assessments

Digital solutions

E-downloads

Ordering

Account information

Contact us

Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals | Fifth Edition

Benefits

Features

Tests included

Samples

Test Information

Technical Information

Interviews & Presentations

Case Studies

CELF-5 on Q-interactive at a Glance:

Benefits of CELF-5 on Q-interactive

How Can I Buy CELF-5 on Q-interactive?

New customers:

Current Q-interactive customers:

FAQs

CELF-5

Sentence Comprehension

Following Directions

Formulated Sentences

Written Language (Reading Comprehension and Writing)

Core Language Skills

ASSESSMENTS

CLINICAL LEGAL POLICIES

HELP & SUPPORT

ABOUT PEARSON