We’re delighted to share the newly published 4th edition of the ELOM 4&5 Technical Manual.
There are three key new updates in this edition since this Technical Manual was last published in 2020. Firstly, there has been a small name change. The acronym used in previous editions of this Manual has been changed to the ELOM 4&5 to denote the age group for which the measure has been designed.
Secondly, we’ve introduced 6-month age band standards. The ELOM 4&5 was developed and standardised in 2015-2016. Since that time, the ELOM 4&5 has been used for several purposes:
- to provide feedback to early learning programmes on the status and progress of children;
- in research studies;
- in the Thrive by Five Index national surveys; and
- in clinical neuropsychological and educational assessment.
ELOM 4&5 records from these studies (currently exceeding 20 000) have been warehoused with DataFirst at the University of Cape Town. This has enabled additional psychometric analyses to be undertaken.
This 4th edition of the Technical Manual includes the original 9-month standards bands based on the 2016 standardisation sample and new 6-month standards bands constructed from pooled DataDrive2030 data collected since 2016. It is up to users to choose the most appropriate bands for their purposes.
And then finally, and most excitingly, we’ve established the predictive validity of the ELOM 4&5. Predictive validity is a type of criterion validity that indicates how well a test result is able to predict a child’s performance on a different measure (the criterion) at a later point. The Roots and Shoots longitudinal study which is being conducted in the Western Cape, has followed individual learner performance from the start of Grade R through the Foundation Phase grades. This has permitted investigation of the predictive validity of the ELOM 4&5 to early Grade 1 and to the end of Grade 2. The 4th edition of the ELOM 4&5 Technical Manual details how the predictive validity of the ELOM 4&5 is established for the ELOM-R (v1), EGMA and EGRA.
