ch. 11: Assessing Student's Language for Learning (L4L) Flashcards
Child and Family in the Assessment Process
- Contact family as soon as referral for evaluation is made
- Provide the family with required information about the evaluation & intervention processes
- Involve the family in the development of IEP
- Provide family with case manager
- Involve student in planning assessment
- Explain what to expect
- Answer student’s questions
- Ask student to talk about troubles/strengths in school; ask what the student would like to improve
- Discussion can provide conversational sample as well as information for planning assessment
What two tools can we use to identify students for communication assessment?
Screening
RTI and Teacher Referral
Screening
Fluharty
should cover a relatively wide range of language behaviors
provide clear scoring
have adequate sensitivity and specificity
take a short amount of time
RTI and Teacher Referral
Teacher referral: perception of the teachers part that something is not quite right about the child
Standardized Tests
- It may form part of eligibility assessment.
- Comprehensive test batteries are often used to identify broad areas of strengths and needs (CELF).
- All domains of language needs to be assessed.
Formal and Informal Assessment Methods include the areas of
Phonology Semantics Syntax and Morphology Receptive syntax/morphology Expressive syntax/morphology Pragmatics Assessing the "Metas" Curriculum Based Assessment
Phonology:
- Examine more demanding tasks like producing complex & unfamiliar words
- Examine Non-word repetition
- Examine phonological awareness
- Examine rapid automatized naming
Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals: CELF
Assessment of Phonological Processes-Revised
Phonology: Examine more demanding tasks like producing complex & unfamiliar words
Assessment of Phonological Processes Revised
Phonology: Examine Non-word repetition
Children’s Test of Non-word Repetition
Phonology: Examine phonological awareness
Phonological Awareness Test
Phonology: Examine rapid automatized naming
CELF
Semantics:
Receptive Vocab
Expressive Vocab
Semantics: Receptive Vocab
(Using pictures & diagrams, definitions)
* Instructional vocabulary:spatial, temporal, logical and directive vocabulary the teacher uses * Textbook vocabulary: potentially problematic vocabulary of the classroom textbook
Semantics: Expressive Vocab
*Lexical diversity
Word retrieval (Test of word finding in discourse)
Quick incidental learning (Diagnostic evaluation of language variation)
Semantic relations between clauses
Syntax:
Receptive syntax/morphology
Expressive syntax/morphology
Receptive Syntax/Morphology
assess decontextualized language
assess use of comprehension strategies
assess contextualized language
Receptive Syntax/Morphology: Methods for assessing decontextualized language
*Judgment of semantic acceptability
Judgment of appropriate interpretation
Receptive Syntax/Morphology: Poor performance on decontextualized activities:
Assessing use of comprehension strategies (Probable event & Word order)
Receptive Syntax/Morphology: Methods for assessing contextualized syntax
Observe interaction in a less demanding environment
Expressive Syntax
Spontaneous Speech Sampling
Pragmatics
Conversational
Narrative
Pragmatics: Conversational
(Pragmatic Protocol) Communicative intentions Contextual variation (Register variation, Presupposition, Discourse management)
Pragmatics Narrative:
Comprehension and inferencing (Test of reading comprehension)
Narrative production (Test of narrative language)
Macrostructure
Cohesion
Microstructure
Assessing written narratives
Assessing “artful” storytelling
Metas
Metalinguistic Awareness
Metacognitive Skills
Metas: Metalinguistic Awareness
*
Metas: Metacognitive Skills
Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation
Curriculum Based Assessment
Artifact analysis
Onlooker Observation
Dynamic Assessment
Curriculum Based Assessment: Artifact Analysis
(portfolio assessment, functional assessment)
functional assessment
a way to look at how the student uses communication in real, relevant situations
Curriculum Based Assessment: Onlooker Observation
watching from a distance
assessing adherence to classroom discourse rules or use of communication intentions
Curriculum Based Assessment: Dynamic Assessment
(participant observation)
Diagnostic teaching: child given a difficult tasks, clinician gives contextual supports and cues
Successive cuing: several levels of cuing provided
Mediated learning: helping the student invoke metacognitive strategies
Considerations for Assessing Older Severely Affected Students at the L4L Stage
- Use chronologically age-appropriate materials
- Evaluate functional needs
- Use ecological inventories
- Address literacy needs of students using AAC
- Consider voice-output devices, or applications for AAC
Considerations for Assessing Older Severely Affected Students at the L4L Stage: Use chronologically age-appropriate materials
situations or props that are fitting for the persons age
Considerations for Assessing Older Severely Affected Students at the L4L Stage: Evaluate functional needs
*
Considerations for Assessing Older Severely Affected Students at the L4L Stage: Use ecological inventories
used to determine what communicative skills are needed to succeed in the client’s daily environment
- get to know the client
- list activities and routines in a typical day in this setting
- state goals and lit key activities
- observe and record behaviors of typical participants
- observe the student in each activity
- compare the students behavior to expectations
- identify the language/communication skills needed to achieve expectations
- identify communication skills not currently demonstrated
- outline communication goals for each activity
- Develop an IEP for these goals
Considerations for Assessing Older Severely Affected Students at the L4L Stage: Address literacy needs of students using AAC
*
Considerations for Assessing Older Severely Affected Students at the L4L Stage: Consider voice-output devices, or applications for AAC
*
Considerations for Assessing students with ASD at the L4L stage
- Range of language skills in ASD & LLD are similar (Superior - nonverbal).
- In ASD, most significant disabilities will be in pragmatics.
- For those with difficulties only in pragmatics, establishing eligibility for language services may be difficult.
- Parent/Teacher questionnaires & Normed Checklists (Children’s communication Checklist 2)
- Assessment of conversational language in peer interaction
- For those with difficulties only in pragmatics, establishing eligibility for language services may be difficult.
Personal narratives
ask the child to recount a salient personal experience
script narrative
relate a routing series of events
fictional narrative
asked to generate a story
narrative macrostructure
The large picture, narrative maturity
Narractive microstrucutre
vocabulary and sentence structure
the smaller picture
multiple episodes
more than one complete episode, containing initiating event, action, consequence and reaction
complex episode
contain obstacles that complicate the solution or main character’s ability to carry out the plan developed by the story
embedded spisodes
one episode occurs within another in the story
interactive episode
narrative tells the story from two different points of view
self-assessment
understanding of the thinking process and the ability to consciously consider and reflect on knowledge and understanding of one’s self and others
