ACE Flashcards
What will the Ax of ACE assess
The Assessment of Comprehension and Expression assesses children’s understanding of verbal language,
their ability to express their thoughts effectively,
grammar,
semantic skills
pragmatics.
These skills are assessed through the 5 main subtests:
ACE 1 of 5 assessment areas
Sentence comprehension
Assesses children’s understanding of spoken sentences of various lengths and complexities through pointing to the picture that best matches the sentence spoken.
ACE 2/5 ax areas?
Inferential comprehension
Assesses children’s ability to infer information from the verbal and visual information provided. This is done by children being told a short story and being presented with a picture to aid their understanding, they are then asked a series of questions that require them to look for clues in the text and pictures as well as use their knowledge to answer logically and make predictions.
ACE 3/5 Ax areas
Naming
Assess children’s expressive vocabulary skills through presenting a series of pictures that children have to name.
ACE 4/5 Ax Areas
Syntactic formulation
Assesses children’s ability to produce various grammatically correct sentences. Children are given a picture and read a model sentence or the start of a sentence as a reference.
ACE 5/5 Ax Areas
Semantic decisions
Assess children’s ability to make appropriate links between two pictures or words. Children are presented with a picture or word in the middle of a page that is surrounded with four other pictures or words. Children are asked to match the picture or word in the middle with the correct linking picture or word.
There are two further subtests that assess children’s non-literal comprehension and narrative skills. These subtests are optional and can be used by the speech and language therapist to gain more information about children’s ability to tell a story or their understanding of everyday non-literal language.
Why is ACE Needed?
The Assessment of Comprehension and Expression is needed to help
speech and language therapists identify the specific areas of language children are struggling with in order to form a therapy plan that will improve their language abilities.
Children who struggle with comprehension and or expression can often find school and academic learning difficult. This is because they may not fully be able to understand what is being said or they may struggle to express their thoughts in an effective or appropriate manner.
Below are some of the common conditions the Assessment of Comprehension and Expression is used for
Name the following
Aphasia Acquired head / brain injury Autism spectrum disorder High-functioning autismg Developmental verbal dyspraxia Learning disability Specific language impairment Down’s syndrome Stroke Developmental delay
Our speech and language therapists help children of all abilities who have language difficulties, including those children who have been diagnosed with a condition or difficulty and those who are awaiting a diagnosis or have not yet been identified or diagnosed with a particular condition. Our speech and language therapists aim to work with you and your child to create an individualised therapy programme that works on improving those language skills your child finds difficult.
What information to give parents after the ACE?
provide you with a summary of what the assessment has found.
After an assessment, you can request a detailed report about the information gained from the assessment.
The report will explain how your child’s difficulties may impact their communication skills and learning ability in the classroom.
Our speech and language therapists will also provide recommendations on how to improve your child’s language abilities as well as provide a therapy plan within the report.
Treatment following the Assessment of Comprehension and Expressions
Some of the available language therapy treatments are listed below:
Receptive language therapy
Expressive language therapy
Language group
Advice, training and strategies for parents, teachers, carers and other professionals
Summary of the ACE
The Assessment of Comprehension and Expression is used by our speech and language therapists to assess children’s understanding and expression of verbal language and to identify any language difficulties that are present. The information gained from your child’s assessment will be used to create a unique therapy programme that improves the language skills your child is finding difficult accounting for their goals and motivators
What do you require to make inferences
The ability to make inferences requires good vocabulary skills, good world knowledge, experiences, a good working memory as well as the ability to understand non-verbal language.
What is Inferential comprehension
child’s ability to understand meaning that is not explicitly stated or explained in text they have read, or information they have heard.
Inferential comprehension is the child’s ability to make inferences.
Difficulties with inferential comprehension can lead to children taking a literal understanding of what is being said,
misunderstanding what is being said
misinterpreting the intention of what was said.
Increasing inference skills can help increase children’s understanding of what is being said as well as increase their overall communication skills.
What is Inferential Comprehension
Inferences are conclusions and presumptions we draw from what we have read or heard
using what?
the information given, our prior knowledge, our experiences, our imagination and intuition.
Inference is often
automatic
something we do on a regular basis.
In conversations we look for meaning in the words spoken
We infer to help us understand what is being said better and to develop conversations.
If somebody told you “I have just got back from holiday and I now have a tan”, you would automatically assume that it was hot on their holiday.
This would lead to you being able to expand on the conversation, you could respond by asking if the heat was bearable.
The ability to infer is important as we constantly assume that people can make inferences from what we have said, our behaviour and our tone of voice. For that reason we don’t always give extra detail when speaking.
It is the same with narratives and stories used in schools, it is up to the child’s imagination and understanding to make conclusions.
What is the best way to increase your inference skills.
***** Inferences in conversation or while learning, help to increase memory and retention, as you make links with already existing memories, knowledge and schemas.
The best way to increase your inference skills is by asking yourself questions about the information, for example; who? What? Where? When? Why?
