LanguageLanguage

AssessmentAssessment

Purposes of AssessmentPurposes of Assessment

– Identifying children with language

disorders

– Identifying areas of deficit in a child’s

language

– Designing appropriate language

intervention programs

– Monitoring changes resulting from

intervention

• Identifying children with language disorders

Language displayed is below or different from our impression of what is “normal” for a child at that age

Scales of normal development along with data collected on normal children

Language tests standardized on normal children

• Identifying areas of deficit in a child’s language

(i.e. description of the language problem)

Behavioristic model categories of behaviors ex:questions, statements, commands, described according to the rate and frequency of occurrence such as “stimulus overselectivity” or “response overgeneralization”

Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities model problems categorized in terms of subtests such as “ visual or auditory association problem”

Auditory processing models deficits in the processes of decoding information contained in the auditory signal such as “ auditory discrimination” or “ auditory sequencing”

Linguistic model problems within various linguistic levels such as “phonological problems”, “morphological problems”

Semantic models

Structural analysis involvesStructural analysis involves

• Examining patterns exhibited by the child

and the interactant

• Determining areas of strength and deficit

• Looking for contextual factors that account

for the variability in the child’s performance

structural analysis leads to the identification of :

what is being attempted by the child what is being accomplished what conditions promote or impede

success And so offers suggested directions for

therapyIs an ongoing assessment approach

TerminologyTerminology– Preassessment

– Screening

– Assessment

– Diagnosis

– Evaluation

Methods of assessmentMethods of assessment Obtaining information from

parents and other adults– such as preassessment forms

family interview Observations of child’s

performance in naturalistic

context Using standardized tests of

language Using non-standardized tests of

language

– Spontaneous language samples

– Interviewing

– Questions for information

– Elicited imitation

– Sentence completion

– Naming

– Pointing

– Acting out tasks

– Retelling a story or an event

– Reenactment

– Pretending

– Games

– Set ups

Assessment QuestionsAssessment Questions– Does the child have a language

problem

– What is causing the problem

– What are the areas of deficit

– What are the regularities in the

child’s language performance

– What is recommended for this

child