Fuchs, D., Dailey, A. M., & Fuchs, L. S. (1982). Examiner familiarity and the relation between qualitative and quantitative indices of expressive language (Report No. IRLD-RR-83). University of Minnesota, National Center on Educational Outcomes.

(Report No. IRLD-RR-83). University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Institute for Research on Learning Disabilities. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 224 199)

Participants were assessed twice during a period of two weeks-once by a classroom teacher and once by a stranger-within a crossover design. All examiners were female, certified, and had several years' experience.

Participants consisted of 34 preschool children, 21 boys and 13 girls, with moderate to profound disabilities in speech or language functioning. The mean age was 4-9. All Participants tested within the normal range on IQ tests.

Participants described two pictures from Tester's Teaching Picture Series (1966). Each description was rated as accurate or inaccurate with respect to the content of the stimulus picture and was scored in terms of the total number of intelligible words employed. An 18-category scale was used to measure the semantic/syntactic complexity of the participants' descriptions.

Participants demonstrated richer descriptive language, as well as greater fluency, under the familiar examiner condition. Participants used a greater number of non-repetitive, intelligible words to describe drawings when interacting with familiar rather than unfamiliar testers. The children's total semantic/syntactic complexity score and their complexity score on accurate statements also were greater in the familiar condition than in the unfamiliar examiner condition. Also, children employed a greater number of qualitatively different semantic/ syntactic categories with the familiar examiner.