Chapter 5: Assessment of Children with Language Impairments: Basic Principles

1. Chapter 5:Assessment of Children with Language Impairments: Basic Principles

3. I. Preliminary Components of Assessment** • Screening refers to the process of quickly and efficiently obtaining a general view of a child’s language skills • Screening can result in one of two decisions: • More, in-depth evaluation is needed • No further assessment is needed at this time

4. Owens 2014—the purposes of a full language evaluation are to determine: • 1. Whether a problem exists • 2. Related factors (e.g., poverty, family issues) • 3. The overall intervention plan

5. A case history…** • Is important to gather when a child is going to undergo an in-depth language evaluation • Can be supplemented by an examination of the student’s “cum file,” or cumulative file to see if there are patterns to his school performance over time

6. Paul & Norbury, 2012: • Get family’s perspective • Do they think there is a problem? • What is their perception of the problem?

7. The Pre-Evaluation Process** • After gathering a case history, the SLP needs to: • 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 L1 and L2 • 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

8. Examples of variables:** Divorce, family issues (e.g., death) Peer teasing, bullying Childhood illnesses (including OME) • ADHD, drugs, alcohol • Cultural factors

9. ASHA: • Kids bullied--stutter and/or have lang impairments • In tx, some SLPs teaching kids how to respond constructively to bullying • Pragmatics problems—address in tx!

10. II. The use of Standardized (Norm-Referenced) Tests** • Assessment of children’s language skills can take place through the use of standardized or formal tests • Standardized tests give SLPs a quantitative means of comparing a child’s performance to the performance of large groups of children in a similar age category • Most standardized tests are norm-referenced • Standardized tests should not be used to create treatment goals and objectives

11. Standardized test--snapshot of ch’s abilities at one point in time • Static assessment • Does not allow us to determine ch’s ability to learn when provided with instruction

12. Test reliability must be considered:** • Interjudge reliability (vs. intrajudge reliability) • Test-retest reliability

13. III. Considerations in Using Standardized Tests with CLD and low-SES Students**(called “diverse” students) • Development of standardized tests has grown out of a middle class, literate, Western framework • Some assumptions underlying standardized tests do not apply to these students

14. There are sources of bias in the use of standardized tests with diverse students:** • Cultural-linguistic bias • Value bias • Situational/format bias • Examiner bias

15. There are ways to modify standardized tests for use with diverse students** • Though use of standardized tests with diverse students is not ideal, many SLPs use these tests anyway • Any modifications of standardized language tests with diverse students must be explained in detail in the diagnostic report

16. IV. Language Samples** • Language samples should be representative • Culturally and linguistically appropriate strategies should be used when language samples are collected • The SLP can calculate the child’s mean length of utterance • Language samples can also be analyzed through use of type token ratio

17. To calculate type-token ratio:** • Number of different words in the sample • Total number of words in the sample • For example: • 100 different words in the sample • 300 total words in the sample • =TTR of 1:3

18. For children 3-8 years of age:** • The average TTR is 1:2 • This indicates performance within normal limits

19. Remember to evaluate the student’s use of:** • Questions and requests • Complex and compound sentences • Declarative sentences • Negatives

20. Evaluate pragmatics skills:** • Nonverbal skills (body language) • Turntaking • Ability to stay on topic with no nonsequiters • Contingency (relatedness of an utterance to a previous utterance) • Ability to add information

21. Informal evaluation of language use can also be implemented:** • The SLP needs to analyze student interactions in natural communication situations with peers from similar cultural and linguistic backgrounds

22. V. Other Alternatives to Standardized Assessment** • Diverse students are overrepresented in special education programs around the US • One reason for this is that there are very few nonbiased assessment instruments and methods for assessing the possible presence of language impairments in diverse children

23. Legal considerations in nonbiased assessment include:** • Mandates of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004) • The IDEA 2004 emphasizes the prevention of inappropriate identification and mislabeling of diverse students for special education

24. According to the IDEA 2004:** • Testing and evaluation materials and procedures must be selected and administered in a nondiscriminatory 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

25. Nonbiased, informal assessment alternatives include:** (explained in next slides) • Dynamic assessment • Assessment of information processing skills • Assessment of narrative skills • Portfolio assessment

26. Assessment of information processing skills: • Evaluate students’ ability--repeat back digits, nonwords, real words • Students with lang impairments do quite poorly

27. In dynamic assessment: • Evaluate student’s ability to learn when provided with instruction • Ask HOW student learns • Test-teach-retest format

28. Recent 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

29. Assessment of narrative skills…** • Has become increasingly popular these days • There are formal tests for this • I generally use pictures or story-retell tasks and ask the questions on page 173 (e.g., does the child include the major details of the story)

30. Portfolio assessment…** • Collect student’s work samples over time, evaluate how much (or little) progress has been made

31. Conceptual scoring= scoring meaningful responses, regardless of which lang they are produced in • E.g., count responses in both English and Spanish, not just Spanish

32. Interpreters can be used in assessment of the language skills of diverse students…** • Interpreters must be appropriately 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

33. VI. Diverse Students: Language Difference or Language Impairment?** • When diverse students struggle in school, teachers often refer them for special education testing • Diverse students should never be labeled “language impaired” if problems are observed only in English and not in L1

34. Statistics: ** • This is very important, because by the year 2030, it is projected that 43% of U.S. citizens will be culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) • In approximately 20 years, children from culturally diverse backgrounds will constitute the majority of children attending U.S. schools

35. When assessing a diverse student for a possible language impairment…** • It is very important to rule out the impact of environment • We must ask if there is a mismatch between the child’s background and the school’s expectations

36. If we can successfully do this…** • We will prevent mislabeling of diverse students with language impairments when they are merely manifesting language differences • We will help them to fulfill their potential academically, socially, and vocationally