TAPS-4: Phonological Processing Auditory Memory Listening Comprehension Test Booklets 

Administration: Individual
Ages: 5 through 21
Testing Time: 60–90 Minutes
Norm Referenced

Description

The TAPS-4 provides information about language processing and comprehension skills across three intersecting areas: phonological processing, auditory memory and listening comprehension. These areas underpin the development of effective listening and communication skills, and are critical to the development of higher-order language skills, including literacy skills.

The TAPS-4 features new subtests along with revisions to subtests from the TAPS-3, fully updated norms, and an expanded age range. The TAPS-4 subtests were also reorganized into Index and Supplemental subtests, reducing testing burden and increasing flexibility in administration.

The TAPS-4 also features audio administration for the subtests in which proper pronunciation of speech sounds is critical, providing a greater degree of standardization and accuracy during the testing process.

The TAPS-4 has 11 subtests, organized into three indices:

Phonological Processing Index:

• Word (Pair) Discrimination: Assesses an individual's ability to discriminate whether a given word pair is the same or different
  
• Phonological Deletion: Assesses an individual's ability to manipulate phonemes within words
  
• Phonological Blending: Assesses an individual's ability to synthesize a word given the individual phonemes
  
• Syllabic Blending (Supplemental): Assesses an individual's ability to synthesize a nonsense word given the individual syllables
  

Auditory Memory Index:

• Number Memory Forward: Assesses an individual's ability to recall an auditory sequence of numbers in the given order
  
• Word Memory: Assesses an individual's ability to recall an auditory sequence of words in the given order
  
• Sentence Memory: Assesses an individual's ability to recall a spoken sentence
  
• Number Memory Reversed (Supplemental): Assesses an individual's ability to recall an auditory sequence of numbers in the reverse order
  

Listening Comprehension Index:

• Processing Oral Directions (without background noise): Assesses an individual's ability to process and recall oral directions when presented in quiet listening conditions
  
• Auditory Comprehension: Assesses an individual's ability to comprehend oral language at the sentence and narrative level, including literal recall, inference, and higher order language tasks such as idioms and figurative language
• Auditory Figure-Ground (Processing Oral Directions with background noise)  (Supplemental): Assesses an individual's ability to process and recall oral directions when presented with competing background noise
  

Assessment of 5 Abilities in 3 Skill Areas

The TAPS-4 assesses five narrow abilities across three broad skill areas as defined in the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory of cognitive abilities:

1. Short-Term Memory
   • Memory Span (MS)
   • Working Memory Capacity (WM)
2. Auditory Processing
   • Phonetic Coding (PC)
   • Resistance to Auditory Stimulus Distortion (UR)
3. Comprehension Knowledge
   • Listening Ability (LS)

Administration and Scoring

TAPS-4 Index subtests can be administered in one hour or less. Scaled scores are provided for subtests; standard scores are provided for indices and the overall score. Discrepancy scores allow comparison of performance across subtests.

TAPS-4 Technical Information 

Normative Sample

• 2,023 individuals from ages 5 through 21.
  
• The normative sample was within 5% of the reported U.S. population in terms of major demographic characteristics.
  
• The normative sample included individuals with specific language impairment, learning disability, auditory processing disorder, ADHD, and hearing impairment.

Reliability

• Internal Consistency Coefficients were 0.80 to 0.89 for the Index Scores and 0.93 for TAPS-4 Overall Score.
  
• Test-Retest reliability coefficients ranged from 0.93 to 0.98 for the Index Scores and was 0.99 for the TAPS-4 Overall Score.
  
• Interrater Reliability coefficients ranged from 0.97 to 0.99 for the Processing Oral Directions Subtest, the Auditory Figure Ground Subtest, the Auditory Comprehension Subtest, and the Listening Comprehension Index.

Validity 

• CELF-5 Receptive Language Index score significantly correlated with the scores for the Processing Oral Directions Subtest, Auditory Comprehension Subtest, the Listening Comprehension Index, and Overall Score (r=0.68-0.80).
  
• Confirmatory Factor Analysis showed the three-factor design of the TAPS-4 significantly fit the data (CFI=0.969).
  
• Matched-pairs comparison analyses showed individuals with a learning disability, specific language impairment, or hearing impairment had significantly lower scores on the TAPS-4 Overall Score than their matched peers.

Download the TAPS-4 Administration Manual Introduction (Sample)