ABSTRACT
The work we have conducted with language-impaired children and young adults is carried out within the context of short-term and longitudinal studies emphasizing the biological correlates of abnormal child development. After re ferral, parents and children are seen in several initial research interviews, and may be observed at home and in school. Play sessions in which the child chooses his own activities and is then engaged in structured interactional games and play are videotaped and used as the data base for periodic language sampling. Formal psychological testing is adapted to the child’s developmental level, linguistic skills, and attentional control; the McCarthy Scales of Children’s Abilities (1972), the revised Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children, or the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scales of Intelligence (Wechsler, 1967, 1974) may be
presented over a period of three or four testing sessions and supplemented by the results from the Arthur Adaptation of the Leiter International Performance Scale (Arthur, 1952), for younger children, or the Leiter International Performance Scale (1948), which do not require language for administration or test response. The Progressive Matrices (Raven, 1962) test general intelligence but are most useful in assessing spatial aptitude, inductive reasoning, and perceptual accuracy.
