11/21-Assessment of Children with Language Impairments Basic Principles Flashcards
What is a preliminary component of Assessment?
Screening
What is Screening?
refers to the process of quickly and efficiently obtaining a general view of a child’s language skills
What two decisions can screening result in?
- More, indepth evaluation is needed
or
- No further assessment is needed at this time
What is important to gather when a child is going to undergo an in depth language evaluation?
A case history
What can a case history be supplemented by?
an examination of the student’s “cum file” or cumulative file
Why do we need a cum file in addition to a case history?
to see if there are patterns to his/her school performance over time
What is the pre-evaluation process? in other words, what does the SLP need to do after gathering a case history? (5 things)
- obtain a comprehensive teacher evaluation of the student’s classroom performance
- Conduct one or more classroom observations of the student
- Assess the student’s language proficiency in 1st language & 2nd language
- Examine the student’s school records
- Ascertain whether or not there are medical, emotional, or social variables that are impacting the student’s language and academic performance
What are some examples of variables that may impact a child’s language & academic performance? (5 things)
- Divorce, family stress (e.g., death)
- Peer teasing, bullying
- childhood illnesses (including OME)
- ADHD, drugs, alcohol
- Cultural factors
Research
What does ASHA, 2009 say in terms of kids who are bullied and their language performance?
- Kids who are bullied-stutter and/or have language impairments
- in treatment/therapy, some SLPs are teaching kids how to respond constructively to bullying
Research
What does ASHA 2011, say in terms of LI w/ kids who are bullied?
- kids with language impairments are often bullied
- pragmatic problems-address in therapy/treatment
Through what can assessment of Children’s language skills take place?
through the use of standardized or formal tests
What do standardized tests give SLPs?
a quantitative means of comparing a child’s performance to the performance fo large groups of children in a similar age category
What are most standardized tests referenced?
they are norm referenced
What must standardized tests never be use to do?
Should not be used to create treatment goals and objectives
Research
What does Kaderavek, 2011 say in terms of standardized tests?
- Standardized test–is a snapshot of child’s abilities at one point in time
- Static assessment
- Does not allow us to determine child’s ability to learn when provided with instruction
With Standardized tests, what is it important to consider?
- Test validity
- Test reliability
What is construct validity?
the degree to which test scores are consistent with theoretical constructs or concepts
What is concurrent validity?
the degree to which a new test correlates with an established test of known validity
What is predictive validity?
looks at a test’s accuracy in predicting future performance on a related task
What is content validity?
it asks two things:
1-Are the test items relevant?
2.-Do the items adequately sample the full range of skills?
What is interjudge reliability?
two different raters score the same set of behaviors (always on praxis! on exam!)
What is intrajudge reliability?
within one person’s behavior differs
(check book for actual definition)
What is split half reliability?
test’s internal consistency
What is test-retest reliability?
consistency of measures when the same test is administered more than once
What are some considerations we should have in using standardized tests with CLD students?
- development of standardized tests has grown out of a middle-class, literate, western framework
- Some of the assumptions underlying standardized tests do not apply to CLD students
What are sources of bias in the use of standardized tests with CLD students?
- cultural-linguistic bias
- value bias
- situational/format bias
- examiner bias
What is cultural-linguistic bias?
activities and items don’t correspond with the child’s background
What is value bias?
test items assume a value different from the child’s
What is situational/format bias?
use of testing procedures that don’t correspond with the child’s background
What is examiner bias?
looks at how we administer tests and interpret results
Even though standardized tests aren’t ideal for CLD students, what do many SLPs do anyway?
Many SLPs use the standardized tests anyway (sometimes they modify them a little bit)
What must we do if we modify any standardized language tests for CLD children?
it must be explained in detail in the diagnostic report
What are some characteristics of what language samples should be and what we should do with them?
- should be representative
- culturally and linguistically appropriate strategies should be used when language samples are collected
- the SLP can calculate the Child’s MLU
- Language samples can also be analyzed through the use of type token ratio
How do you calculate Type Token Ratio?
Number of different words in a sample / total # of words in the sample
ex: 100 diff. words/ 300 total words
=TTR of 1:3
What is the average TTR for children 3-8 years of age, and what does that indicate?
- the average TTR is 1:2
- This indicates performance within normal limits
What must we remember to always evaluate the student’s use of?
- questions and requests
- complex and compound sentences
- declarative sentences
- negatives
How should we evaluate pragmatic skills?
- non verbal skills (body language)
- turntaking
- ability to stay on topic with no nonsequiters
- contingency
- ability to add information
How can informal evaluation of language also be implemented?
the SLP neds to analyze student interactions in natural communication situations with peers from similar cultural and linguistic backgrounds
Who are overrepresented in special education programs around the U.S.?
CLD students
Why is it that CLD students are overrepresented in special education classrooms across the U.S.?
-one reason for this is that there are very few nonbiased assessment instruments and methods for assessing the possible presence of language impairments in CLD children
Research
What does ASHA, 2011 say in terms of standardized tests?
it is important to use non standardized informal procedures
What are some legal considerations in nonbiased assessment that we must consider?
- mandates of the individuals with disabilities education act (IDEA, 2004)
- The IDEA, 2004 emphasizes the prevention of inappropriate identification and misabeling of CLD students for special education
According to the IDEA, 2004, what must testing and evaluation materials and procedures contain?
- testing and evaluation materials and procedures must be selected and administered in a non-discriminatory manner
- testing and evaluation materials must be provided and administered in the language or other mode of communication in which the child is most proficient
what do nonbiased informal assessment alternatives include?
- dynamic assessment
- assessment of information processing skills
- assessment of narrative skills
- portfolio assessment
What do you do when assessing information processing? and how do LI children do?
- information processing: evaluate student’s ability to repeat back digits, non-words, & real words
- students with language impairments do quite poorly
What do SLPs do in dynamic assessment?
- evaluate student’s ability to learn when provided with instruction
- ask how student learns
- test-teach-retest format
Research
What does CSHA & ASHA 2011 say in terms of information processing testing?
- research: information processing measures are “gold standard” in our profession
- rule out the variable of background knowledge (or lack thereof) as a factor in assessment
Research
What does Thordattir et al (2011, journal of Speech language and hearing research, april issue) say about detecting SLI?
- study of French-speaking children-best tasks for detecting SLI were
1. Sentence initiation **
2. nonword repetition
3. following directions
What is some information we know in terms of narrative skills? and what does dr. R usually use when testing narrative skills?
- it has become increasingly popular these days
- there are formal tests for this
- Dr. R. generally uses pictures of story-retell tasks and ask the questions on pg. 173 (check book!)
What do we do in terms of portfolio assessment?
- collect student’s work samples over time
- evaluate how much (or little) progress has been made
What is conceptual scoring?
scoring meaningful responses regardless of which language they are produced in
In terms of interpreters being used in assessment of CLD students, what should they and we do?
- interpreters must be appropriate trained for their roles
- they need to be shown how to administer assessment tasks
- the SLP needs to remain present during all testing that is conducted with an interpreter
what do teachers often do with CLD students who struggle in school?
often refer the for special education testing
what should CLD students never be labeled and in what circumstance?
-should never be labeled “language impaired” if problems are observed only in English and not in first language
Research
What does Scheffner Hammer (2011; American Journal of Speech-language Pathology, May issue) say about CLD children not being inappropriately labeled as language impaired?
- this is very important because by the year 2030, it is projected that 43% of U.S. citizens will be culturally and linguistically diverse
- in approximately 20 years children from culturally diverse backgrounds will constitute the majority of children attending US schools
What must we rule out and ask ourselves when assessing a CLD student for a possible language impairment?
- it is very important to rule out the impact of the environment
- we must ask if there is a mismatch between the child’s background and the school’s expectations
If we can successfully assess and rule out the impact of the environment and the matching of the child’s background with the school’s expectations, what will we accomplish?
- we will prevent mislabling of CLD students with language impairments when they are merely manifesting language differences
- we will help CLD students to fulfill their potential academically, socially, and vocationally
