Comparison of scores obtained on the PPVT and the PPVT-R

The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) is a widely used receptive vocabulary screening tool, but it is not without its limitations, such as inadvisable I.Q. usage and a standardization procedure that lacks scope. A revision of the PPVT, known as the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R) was published in 1981, and contains a more complete standardization procedure as well as some structural changes of the test itself (Dunn, 1981). Speech/language pathology, whose diagnosticians most commonly use the age equivalent value, is a profession that would gain from information which deals with the equivalency of the PPVT-R to the original PPVT. The purpose of the study was to compare age equivalent values obtained from the PPVT and the PPVT-R for a preschool aged population. Specifically, this study sought to discover whether or not significant differences existed between the age equivalent values derived from the PPVT and the PPVT-R. Eighty children, age three years, six months to four years, six months participated as subjects in the study, selected on the basis of their chronological age and enrollment in one of ten selected preschools. The subjects were divided into four groups (N=20), and each group was administered one form of the PPVT (A or B) and one form of the PPVT-R ( L or M). The resultant groupings were: I (A and L); II (A and M); III ( B and L); and IV ( B and M)