4/9 & 4/11-Preschool/School-Age Communication Assessment Flashcards
What do we have to rely on as SLP?
- Being a part of a team
- As our experience grows, we recognize patterns/profiles
- A well-designed, thorough assessment of communication skills and deficits will help us in the diagnostic process.
- Assessment and measurement are ongoing throughout intervention.
What is the least important part of the goals of assessment?
- Providing a diagnostic label!
What is the most important part of the goal of assessment?
- Accurately describing the complex language systems of the individual child
- and to recommend treatment, follow-up, or referral
What four things does an SLP need to determine during the assessment?
- Whether or not a problem exists
- The causal-related factors
- The overall intervention plan (if one is warranted)
- Recommendations for caregivers and teachers
During assessment what are some questions to remember?
- WHY a child is being assess/purpose of the assessment
- This leads us to WHAT behaviors to assess
- Make sure to look at all systems of language!
- Then leads us to HOW (How will we do this?) The best evaluative method to use.
Where do the “why” questions come from?
- Parents
- Interviews
- Teachers
- Referral
Thinking back to the form from the Maryjane-Rees Language Speech and Hearing Center client intake form, what types of history is important to know?
- Prenatal and Birth history
- Medical history
- Developmental history
- Sleeping habits
- Family and friends
- Educational history
(I DON’T KNOW IF WE NEED THESE?????) List 3 examples of questions that could be asked regarding Prenatal and birth history
- Describe any complications during pregnancy or birth
- Describe your child’s recent eating habits
- Any nursing or feeding problems?
(I DON’T KNOW IF WE NEED THESE?????) List 3 examples of questions that could be asked regarding Medical history.
- Any ear infections, if so how many and how were they treated?
- Describe any major accidents. falls or hospital visits
- Does you child have any medical diagnosis?
(I DON’T KNOW IF WE NEED THESE?????) List 3 examples of questions that could be asked regarding Developmental history.
- Provide the approx. ages at which your child crawled, sat up, walked, stood, and was potty trained.
- Is your child right or left handed?
- At what age did your child combine words?
(I DON’T KNOW IF WE NEED THESE?????) List 2 examples of questions that could be asked regarding Sleeping habits.
- Describe any difficulties your child has getting to sleep, or staying asleep, or waking up.
- does your child bang their head or rock back and forth at night?
(I DON’T KNOW IF WE NEED THESE?????) List 3 examples of questions that could be asked regarding Family and friends.
- Who out of your family has sought services from an SLP, and what services were needed?
- Please identify all current household members, their ages, and relationship to the child
- Describe the child’s relationship with family members, friends, or peers at school.
(I DON’T KNOW IF WE NEED THESE?????) List 3 examples of questions that could be asked regarding Educational history.
- Where does your child go to school and what grade are they in?
- Describe your child’s academic performance —> strength and weaknesses
- Any special services in school?
Describe the Formal structured protocols/Standardized tests…
- Provide more specific information, but with less variety and meanings are expressed due to high structure.
- The data is easy to quantify/qualify
Describe the Informal, less structured (descriptive) approaches…
- Allows for more naturalistic expression
- Examples: Language samples & observations
- But the data is more difficult to quantify/qualify
What two procedures compose the Formal Approaches?
- Criterion-Referenced (Neutralist philosophy)
- Norm-Referenced (Normalist philosophy)
Describe the Criterion-Referenced formal approach…
- Compares child’s present performance to past performance &/or is descriptive in nature
- Performance is summarized meaningfully with raw scores
Describe the Norm-Referenced formal approach…
- Based on a norm, or average perfromance level
- This is often a score that society considers typical of normal functioning
- Main purpose is to rank individuals
- Performance is summarized using standard scores and percentiles
Which out of the two formal approaches are MORE FORMAL? (according to Dr. P)
Criterion-Referenced
(IMPORTANT) In special education, what is the number we care about – how many standard deviations below the mean of 100?
1.5 standard deviations!
Math problem!! What is the score when you subtract 1.5 standard deviations below the mean (Need to know how to do this for exam)
- 100 - 15 - 7.5 = 77.5 (round up to 78)
- Which is approximately the 7th percentile
What type of test is the one SLP’s give the most?
- Standardized and “normed” (Normalist philosophy)
Why do we call a test standardized?
There is a consistent manner of presenting test items
If you modify the way you give a standardized test what can happen to your report?
- Affect normative data —> results are not valid!
- you should report if in your written evaluation
Why do we call a test normed?
- Because it is given to a group of children that supposedly represent all children for whom the test was designed.
**DO WE REALLY NEED THIS CARD?** What did Dr. Maryann Wolf say regarding Bell Curves?
- “Everything in life is about a bell curve…”
What is the bell curve?
- The test assumes that the “average” score for a sample population is the “normal” score for the larger population
- A wide scoring area around the mean is considered to be a standard deviation (also be associated with percentiles)
- 2/3 of the population falls within one standard deviation above or below the mean
- Two standard deviations is a better index of deviancy from the mean. -Some use the 10th percentile as a cut off
** Local School Districts use “at or below 1.5 sstandard deviations below the mean or below the 7th percentile on two or more standardized measures
Write out the table regarding CELF-4.
.
What are standard scores often being converted into?
- Age & grade equivalent scores
Need help putting this into question form***
Why is it difficult to interpret age and grade equivalent scores?
- It can lead to assumptions
- A child who is older than another child can score the same, but have different errors
- Difficult to interpret age and grade equivalent scores if a child is held back a grade
- We often just stick to the Standard Scores and Percentiles
What is the ideal behind standardized tests being normed?
- The norming group has the same characteristics as the children for whom the test is designed.
- What kind of differences are represented in the children, that should be represented in the norming group in the same proportions?
- Gender
- Racial
- Ethnic
- Geographic
- Socioeconomic
Why would using normed test be inappropriate?
- Culturally and Linguistically different backgrounds
- Child may not be exposed to what is being asked on the test – may never have experienced certain things
Why must we include certain statements in most assessments?
- To state the tests validity
- To state that results of a test have questionable validity because they weren’t primarily normed on clients whose first language is not English
- (To go along with questionable validity)… The student may not have had experience with some of the material present on the test and the results may under-represent his/her language abilities
- Effects of environment, cutlure or economic disadvantage are/are not known to be a factor in the student’s development of speech and language skills
What are some considerations related to Standardized tests?
- All test items have the same weight, regardless of their developmental importance (“to be” vs. “past -ed”)
- Using a test designed for 6 year olds with a child with an ID who is functioning at 3yrs old
- Don’t make grand statements about language without considering just what the test is testing.
What are Primary tests looking at?
Name a few Primary Tests…
- All systems of language
- Woodcock- Johnson Test of Achievement III (WJ III)
- Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals- 4 ( CELF-4)
- Clinical Assessment of Spoken Language (CASL)
What are Secondary tests look for?
What are some examples of Secondary tests?
- Causing us to probe a little deeper (In his notes)
- Receptive one word picture vocabulary test (ROWPT)
- Expressive one word picture vocabulary test (EOWPT)
- Peabody Picture vocabulary test (PPVT)
- Test for examining expressive morphology (TEEM)
- Comprehensive test of phonological processing (CTOPP)
- Test of pragmatic language - 2 (TOPL-2)
- Test of auditory processing skills (TAPS)
What are some test selection variables?
- Is the test approprate for the child’s age/functioning level
- Is the norming population large and varied (includes representatives of the child’s racial-ethnic and socioeconomic background)
- Does the manner of presentation of the test match the optimal conditions for testing for your client? (Visual? Hearing?)
- Are you familiar enough with the test procedures?
- Reliability?
- Validty?
What are two ways to discover if a test is reliable?
- High internal consistency: Student who scores well overall get the same items correct, those who score low also perform similarly
- Interjudge reliability: The porbability that two judges will score the test in the same way.
What are three measures of validity?
- Criterion Validity: Accuracy with which a test predicts success based on other measures of success considered valid
- Content Validity: Faithfulness with which a measure represents some attribute or behavior
- Construct Validity: The extent to which a measure describes or measures some trait. Determined through comparison to other valid methods.
What are two informal, less structured approaches?
- Language Sampling
- Observation
What are two things should we include in our report that can highlight the individualistic nature of a child’s communication abilities?
- Language Sampling
- Observation
What are descriptive approaches in general?
- Flexibility
- Allow for notation of pragmatic behavior.
- Allow is to note different behaviors in different environments.
What are two types of Language Sampling?
- Spontaneous (best type of sampling) Includes….Frog series by Mercer Mayer (no words), Pieretti’s collection of wordless books (stimulate spontaneously) & Play activities
- Conversational (requires probing, but still can be valuable)
What information can you obtain from a language sample?
- MLU
- Length of utterances
- Form (Syntax & Morphology)
- Content (Semantics)
- Use (Pragmatics)
What are a few disadvantages of taking a language sample?
- Level of expertise needed by SLP for analysis
- The time that is needed to collect the sample
- Reliability and validity of the sample (often subjective)
Which type of informal approach is more natural? Where is it most natural at and with whom?
- Observation
- Home and the classroom
- Cargivers & peers with the child in everday settings
What would an observatoin in a clinical setting look like?
- Consist of toys or items from home
- Be both structured & non-structured conversational activities with caregiver(s)
- Try to make it as typical as possible
What should your notes look like while observing?
- Descriptions should detail as closely as possible what was observed.
- Recommended to tape record and video
- Refer to those developmental language charts
What are the 5 things you should be paying attention to while observing?
- Form of Language: (Single words? Phrases? Sentences? Negatives? Possessives? Elaboration?)
- Understanding of Semantic Content: (Does the child respond appropriately to various question form–the wh’s? Does the child confuse words from different semantic classes?)
- Language Use: (Lok for a range of functions–askingfor info. or help, replying, statments, conversational turn, intro. of topics and maintence of them through turns and repairs?)
- Rate of speech: (Too slow? Too fast? Pauses between turns or before words ot utterances? Fillers used frequently (um’s) or word substitutions?)
- Sequencing: (Can he/she relate events in a sequential fashion based on order of occurence? Can he/she discuss recent past events or recount stories–narratives?)
What type of approach is recommended for us to use in practice?
- A Combined Approach of Informal/descriptive & Formal/standardized
Why is a combined approach recommended?
- No single measure or session is adequate (The client could be having a bad day
- Multiple assessment of language features and behaviors in a variety of contexts (Primary Tests)
- Allows for alternation of structured and non-structured tasks (attention)
- Adapt methods to the child
- The result is the most thorough individualized method of evaluation possible
What are the 4 parts of the Combind Approach?
- Questionnaire &/or Caregiver interview
- Environmental Observation
- ALP-Directed formal standardized assessment (Psychometric approach)
- Child-Directed informal assessment (Conversational approach)
* Components, of course, vary by child and work setting, byt each step becomes more focused
What are some pre-literacy skills we CAN’T forget to think about?
- Reading Sample: Particularly if Dyslexic or LD (LLD) is suspected
- Ask about school performance in language arts curriculum: Particularly with regard to reading fluency scores and reading comprehension scores.
- Phonemic awareness (The will be spelling phonetically)
- Rapid Automatized Naming
(HELP RE-WORD THIS???)
What should our Reading Sample consist of?
- Age- appropriate text
- Note fluency
- Ask comprehension questions
- Read a story to the studen and ask them comprehensive questions
- Compare results
What type of samples would we use for a child where dyslexia or LD (LLD) is suspected?
- Reading Sample
- Written Language Sample
What is a written language sample?
Evaluate for…
- Phonological and linguistic awareness
- Word boundaries
- Vocabulary and use
- Ability to communicate thoughts precisely
- Sequentially, and systematically
- Generation and organization of ideas
- Morpheme use
- Syntactic use
- Semantic awareness word associations, and handwriting.
What will written language mirror?
- Oral Language
What systems of language errors fo you notice with Written language samples?
- Semantics
- Syntax
- Phonology
- Morphology
If we saw a delay in play that can be an indicator of what?
- Cognitive abilities
- Environment that the child has been in
- Motor Development
- Help us Diagnostically (Dx SLI or LLD)
Westby stated that there is a correlation between what two things?
- Delayed language skills and play skills at a certain age
T/F: According to Westby & PIeretti…
We can use Language to bring their play along? & We can use play to bring their language along?
TRUE
T/F: Although particular cognitive skills are not necessarily pre-req’s for language developement in general, certain behaviors that can be observed in child’s play and gestural behavior tend to go along with particular commincative developments.
TRUE
Children with a variety of disorders have difficulties processing…
- Verbal information
Questions about cognitive functioning should be approached by a team. Who is apart of this team?
- Neurologists
- Psychologist
- SLP
T/F: Probing during an SLP assessment can answer questions and suggest alternative methods of intervention
-TRUE
What do we need to do as SLP’s during assessments for Information-Processing Deficits?
- Note changes in performance under varying task demands: Vary speed of information and use both familiar and unfamiliar words. Look for trades-offs between accuracy and timing.
- Assess memory with both verbal and nonverbal tasks–digit repitiion, non-word repetition, etc.
- Observe classroom performance: Note taking and expository writing
- Use the test-teach-retest during dynamic assessment. Concered w/ child’s ability to learn, not past performance.
- Note ability to attend, perceive, and recall information; understand explanations; relate past information to new; infer and generalize.
What are the two types of tests that are available to test Pragmatics?
- Test of Pragmatic Language (TOPL)
- Pragmatics Profile (CELF-4)
How do we assess Pragmatics? (Using the tests)
Frequently in the form of …..
- Storytelling
- Topic discussions
- Parent/teacher/caregivers checklists
Why does the nature of pragmatics make the storytelling and topic discussion types of testing difficult?
- The amount of talking
- Frequency of initiation
- Type of discourse
- Register are determined by situations
- Formal testing sets up artificial situations
T/F: Conversational samples, observations in more than one setting, and profiles/checklists may be the best options for assessment?
-TRUE
What are the two types of vocabulary we look at when we are assessing Semantics?
- Receptive Vocab: Point to a picture when given a label or description
- Expressive vocabulary: is assesed in various ways…
What are some examples of the Expressive vocabulary used in assessing Semantics?
- Naming pictures or supplying a definition: Gives clues as to the maturity of the child’s lexicon
- Early definitions rely on use, then descriptions, use in context, synonyms and explanations, and then conventional definitions.
- Giving antonyms or synonyms
- Stating similarities and differences
- Detecting semantic absurdities
- Describing a word
- Explaining figurative language
- Noting or giving multiple meanings
What do many semantic tests ask children to do?
- Define words or label a picture when given a definition
What is the key in assessing semantics?
- Is to determine which words are unknown to the child, and those that are known, but fiddicult to retrieve
- Not semantic errors but word-finding errors
- Some tests allow semantic and phonemic cues to help determine this
What test would be good to use in assessing Semantics?
- Test of Word Finding (TOWF-2)
What forms can we see when assessing Syntax?
- Word ordering
- Unscrambling & sentence assembling
- Sentence combining
- Fill in the blank
T/F: Comprehension of forms usually precedes production?
-TRUE
What is comprehension when assessing Syntax?
-It demonstrates understanding by pointing to a picture or following directions minimally.
What is the production component in assessing Syntax?
- Structured elicitation (describe picture when given a word and a picture, unscramble words, etc.)
- Sentence imitation format (repeating sentences – the idea is that sentences that require more than the working memory of the child will be produced with his/her own lignuistic rule system
What is the focus of assessing Morphology?
- On bound inflectional morphemes: Suffixes, tense markers, plurals possessives, and comparators
What are two types of suffixes we look at in assessing Morphology?
Define them?
- Inflectional Suffixes: Most tests focus on these. Possession, gender, and number in nouns; tense, voice, person, number, and mood in verbs; comparison in adjectives.
- Derivational Suffixes: (Larger Category) is ignored in most texts. Constraints & irregularities are associated with them
How is Morphology often tested?
- Close procedure (Sentence completion)
