What is the TOLD-P:5? The Test of Language Development-Primary explained

The TOLD-P:5, or Test of Language Development–Primary: Fifth Edition, is an individually administered assessment of spoken language for children ages 4 years 0 months through 8 years 11 months, published by PRO-ED in 2019. It is a language test administered one on one by a trained professional, usually a speech-language pathologist or educational diagnostician, and it measures how well a child understands and uses spoken English. It is often confused with an IQ test because both produce scores on the familiar 100-point scale, but the two measure different things: the TOLD-P:5 assesses oral language skills such as vocabulary and grammar, while an IQ test estimates general reasoning ability across many domains. This article covers what the TOLD-P:5 measures, its nine subtests, how it is scored, and how it fits alongside intelligence testing.

According to PRO-ED, the test's publisher, professionals use the TOLD-P:5 for four main purposes: to identify children who are significantly below their peers in oral language proficiency, to determine a child's specific strengths and weaknesses in oral language skills, to document progress in remedial programs, and to measure oral language in research studies.

The test is built on a two-dimensional model of spoken language. One dimension covers linguistic features: "semantics" (the meaning of words) and "grammar" (the rules for combining words), with supplemental coverage of "phonology" (the sound system of a language). The other dimension covers linguistic systems: listening, organizing, and speaking. Each subtest sits at the intersection of one feature and one system, so the battery samples spoken language in a structured way rather than as a single lump.

This design matters for interpretation. A child can have strong vocabulary knowledge but weak sentence grammar, or understand language well while struggling to produce it. Because the TOLD-P:5 separates these skills, an examiner can see the shape of a child's language profile, and that shape often guides intervention planning.

The stakes are real. The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders reports that "developmental language disorder" affects approximately 1 in 14 children in kindergarten, and that children with the disorder are six times more likely to be diagnosed with reading and spelling disabilities and four times more likely to be diagnosed with math disabilities than peers without it. Identifying language weaknesses early, with a well-normed instrument, is one of the main reasons tests like this exist.

The TOLD-P:5 contains six core subtests and three supplemental subtests. The publisher describes them as follows.

• Picture Vocabulary: measures a child's understanding of the meaning of spoken English words (semantics, listening).

• Relational Vocabulary: measures understanding and oral expression of the relationship between two spoken stimulus words (semantics, organizing).

• Oral Vocabulary: measures the ability to give oral definitions of common English words spoken by the examiner (semantics, speaking).

• Syntactic Understanding: measures the ability to comprehend the meaning of sentences (grammar, listening).

• Sentence Imitation: measures the ability to imitate English sentences (grammar, organizing).

• Morphological Completion: measures the ability to recognize, understand, and use common English word forms such as plurals and verb endings (grammar, speaking).

The three supplemental subtests target phonology: Word Discrimination (recognizing differences between speech sounds), Word Analysis (segmenting words into smaller sound units), and Word Articulation (producing important English speech sounds). Examiners can add these when a child's speech sounds are a concern.

Administration is individual and takes 30 minutes to an hour, according to PRO-ED. There is no group format; the examiner presents items orally or with a picture book and records the child's responses.

Subtest results convert to "scaled scores," standard scores with a mean of 10 and a standard deviation of 3, based on the child's age group. Combinations of subtests then form composite indexes with a mean of 100 and a "standard deviation" (a measure of how spread out scores are) of 15, the same metric used by major IQ tests. Composites cover the major dimensions of language, including semantics and grammar, the listening, organizing, and speaking systems, and overall spoken language ability. The system also produces percentile ranks and age equivalents, and the complete kit includes an online scoring and report system that generates confidence intervals and a narrative report.

The current norms are worth noting. The publisher reports that the fifth edition was normed on 1,007 children, stratified by age to match projections of the U.S. school-age population, and that new studies of test bias, including "differential item functioning" analyses (statistical checks that items behave the same way for different groups), indicated little or no bias with respect to gender, race, or ethnicity. PRO-ED also reports diagnostic accuracy studies using sensitivity, specificity, and ROC/AUC statistics, which address how well the test separates children with genuine language problems from typically developing peers.

As with any standardized score, a TOLD-P:5 composite is an estimate with measurement error, so examiners interpret it with confidence intervals rather than as an exact fixed value. A single below-average score is a signal to investigate, and qualified professionals combine it with observation, case history, and other measures before drawing conclusions.

The overlap in score format invites confusion, and the difference lies in what is being sampled. An IQ test samples a broad range of cognitive abilities, such as reasoning with novel patterns, spatial visualization, working memory, and processing speed, to estimate general intelligence. The TOLD-P:5 deliberately confines itself to spoken language. A child could earn a strong score on a nonverbal reasoning measure while scoring poorly on the TOLD-P:5, and that very discrepancy is diagnostically informative, because the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association defines a spoken language disorder as a persistent difficulty with listening and speaking skills rather than a general deficit in ability.

In practice the TOLD-P:5 sits in a family of language instruments rather than intelligence scales. Evaluators choosing among comprehensive batteries may also consider the CELF-5, which covers ages 5 through 21, or the OWLS-II, which adds written language scales. For a narrower question about word knowledge alone, a focused instrument like the EVT-3 measures expressive vocabulary in a shorter session. School evaluation teams frequently pair a language battery with an intelligence test so they can compare language performance against broader cognitive ability.

The age range also has a built-in continuation. When a student passes 8 years 11 months, examiners move to the companion instrument, the TOLD-I:5 (Test of Language Development–Intermediate: Fifth Edition), which PRO-ED publishes for ages 8-0 through 17-11 using the same model of language.

The TOLD-P:5 is a restricted professional instrument. PRO-ED lists it at qualification level B, meaning purchasers need relevant graduate training or certification, and in schools it is typically given by speech-language pathologists, who, in ASHA's words, play a critical role in the screening, assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of children with spoken language disorders. Parents cannot buy or self-administer it, and no online quiz reproduces it.

Results commonly feed into special education eligibility decisions, speech-language therapy planning, and progress monitoring. Because the norms describe children ages 4 through 8, results say nothing about adult ability, and a low score at age 5 is a starting point for support rather than a fixed label. Language skills in early childhood respond to intervention, which is exactly why the publisher lists documenting progress in remedial programs among the test's core purposes.

For adults curious about their own cognitive abilities, the relevant instrument class is different. The RIOT IQ test (the Reasoning and Intelligence Online Test), developed by RIOT IQ with psychometrician Dr. Russell T. Warne, measures general cognitive ability in adults 18 and older through 15 subtests across six cognitive indices: verbal reasoning, fluid reasoning, spatial ability, working memory, processing speed, and reaction time. It takes about 52 minutes and reports scores on the same mean-100, standard-deviation-15 scale described above. It does not replace an individually administered diagnostic evaluation such as the TOLD-P:5. For a normed estimate of adult general ability, you can take the RIOT IQ test at riotiq.com.

The TOLD-P:5 is normed for children ages 4 years 0 months through 8 years 11 months. Students ages 8-0 through 17-11 take the companion TOLD-I:5 instead.

No. It is a spoken language test measuring vocabulary, grammar, and related skills. Its composite scores use the same mean-100, SD-15 scale as IQ tests, but they describe oral language proficiency rather than general intelligence.

According to PRO-ED, administration takes 30 minutes to 1 hour, given individually by a trained examiner.

Subtest scaled scores (mean 10, SD 3), composite indexes (mean 100, SD 15), percentile ranks, and age equivalents, with an online system that also reports confidence intervals.

Phyllis L. Newcomer and Donald D. Hammill authored it; PRO-ED published the fifth edition in 2019. The TOLD series dates back several editions and is among the longer-running spoken language batteries.

Yes. A persistent language weakness alongside otherwise typical ability is the classic profile of a developmental language disorder, which federal health information from the NIDCD estimates affects roughly 1 in 14 kindergarten children.

1. PRO-ED. (2019). TOLD-P:5: Test of Language Development–Primary: Fifth Edition, Complete Kit.. proedinc.com

2. Western Psychological Services. (n.d.). (TOLD-P:5) Test of Language Development–Primary, Fifth Edition.. wpspublish.com

3. PRO-ED. (2019). TOLD-I:5: Test of Language Development–Intermediate: Fifth Edition, Complete Kit.. proedinc.com

4. National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. (n.d.). Developmental language disorder.. nidcd.nih.gov

5. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (n.d.). Spoken language disorders (Practice Portal).. asha.org

Photo by Gustavo Fring on Pexels