# What does the CELF-P2 measure?: Delve into item performance differences of low-income African-AMerican children who speak non-mainstream American English

> **NIH NIH R03** · GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $77,500

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Language and communication are central to children’s healthy development and well-being
throughout the lifespan; thus, early identification of a language disorder is crucial to ensure the
best possible outcomes for young children. However, accurate identification of language
disorders in African American (AA) children from low-income households or those who speak
non-mainstream American English (NMAE) has been quite challenging because the linguistic
characteristics of language deprivation (e.g., smaller lexicon or vocabulary or poor grammatical
development) and sociocultural dialectal features often overlap with patterns in language
disorders. Moreover, low income AA children often do not fare well on standardized language
assessments, but there is a paucity of empirical psychometric information for scores obtained
from this population. It is unclear whether their low performances reflect their true ability,
mismatch between their native language variety and language forms presented on the
assessment, or measurement artifacts presented in the assessment including lack of reliability
and validity or item bias. This project will evaluate the psychometric properties of a widely used
standardized language assessment, the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-
Preschool 2nd Edition (CELF-P2). Specifically, the project will explore the internal structure of
the CELF-P2’s Core Language subtests’ item scores for impoverished children and will
investigate potential factors (i.e., item features and child characteristics) that may affect item
functioning. The Specific Aims of this projects are: Specific Aim1: to test the hypothesized
unidimensional measurement model of three Core Language Subtests of the CELF-P2,
Sentence Structure, Expressive Vocabulary, and Word Structure; Specific Aim2: to investigate
factors such as item features and child characteristics that might affect item functioning on the
Core Language Subtests. The main focus of the Specific Aim1 will be to evaluate whether the
inter-item structure of each of the three subtests parallel the scoring structure of the assessment
(i.e., one-factor or unidimensional) or whether alternative measurement model(s) better explains
the inter-item associations (e.g., multiple factors such as multidimensional or bi-factor model).
The main focus of the Specific Aim2 will be to evaluate item parameters (difficulties and
discriminations) change as a function of item features (e.g., item contents that overlap with AA
NMAE dialect) and child characteristics (e.g., dialect density, risk of language disorder, or
aggressive behavior) via explanatory item response theory model.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9849782
- **Project number:** 5R03HD093954-02
- **Recipient organization:** GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Mi-young Webb
- **Activity code:** R03 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $77,500
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-01-11 → 2021-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9849782

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9849782, What does the CELF-P2 measure?: Delve into item performance differences of low-income African-AMerican children who speak non-mainstream American English (5R03HD093954-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9849782. Licensed CC0.

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