The Predictive Validity of Dynamic Assessment Using ZPD with Expressive Language Delayed Children

Park, Jung Eun; Kim, Young Tae

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Commun Sci Disord. 2003;8(1): 100-116.

Jung Eun Park^` , and Young Tae Kim^`

박정은(Jung Eun Park)| 김영태(Young Tae Kim)

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the predictive validity of dynamic assessment using Zone of Proximal Development. Dynamic assessment examines how children respond to cues presented hierarchically from least to most supportive. The hypothesis is that children’s responsiveness reflects readiness to learn a new behavior; that is, responsiveness to the least supportive cuing indicates a readiness for immediate learning(Vygotsky, 1978). A dynamic assessment procedure was employed with twenty four children with specific expressive language impairment to determine their readiness for producing two-word utterances. The results were analyzed with Spearman rank correlation coefficient. Static assessment is designed to hold contextual support to a minimum, as occurs in standardized testing, so that a child’s habitual performance can be identified. In contrast, dynamic assessment focuses on potential level of performance revealing a child’s immediate ability to change or advance when provided with guided instruction from a more experienced person. The major findings from this study are as follows: (1) Correlation coefficients between the pre-treatment ZPD and the improvement of actual development (difference between two static assessments(post-treatment,pre-treatment)) were very high. (2) The difference of correlation coefficient between high ZPD group and low ZPD group was not significant. The improvement of actual development of high ZPD group was better than low ZPD group. From the findings of this study, the predictive validity of ZPD was supported.