What are the components of speech and language assessment?
Speech and language assessment should measure language production, language comprehension, nonverbal communication and gesture (including gaze and joint attention in young children), pragmatic and figurative language, prosody, rhythm, volume, and content of speech ( Paul, 2005 ).
What is direct assessment of children’s speech and language?
Direct assessment of children’s speech and language is a complex task. Assessment can include consideration of expressive and receptive language, speech production and perception, phonological awareness and preliteracy, hearing, and oromusculature.
What is the assessment process for Speech-Language Pathologists?
Each practice setting has its own considerations that influence the assessment process. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in private practice use screening and assessment tools. Most screenings are pass/fail with recommendation for further evaluation.
What is the scope of practice for Asha speech pathology?
ASHA's Practice Portal. The Scope of Practice in Speech-Language Pathology does not specify tests that can or cannot be administered. In addition to established competence to administer the test, the SLP should be aware of licensure restrictions, if appliable, and publisher guidelines.
What does fronting mean in speech?
Fronting refers to when a child produces a front sound such as “t” and “d” in place of a back sound such as /k/ and /g/. For example, a child may say “tootie” instead of “cookie”, “tar” instead of “car”, or “doat” instead of “goat”.
What is speech sound assessment?
Speech Sound Assessment. The speech sound assessment uses both standardized assessment instruments and other sampling procedures to evaluate production in single words and connected speech.
What is the cycles approach in speech?
The cycles approach is an evidence-based way to treat phonological disorders in children. Developed by Barbara Hodson, it treats sound patterns and processes instead of individual sounds. Error patterns might include not saying both sounds in a cluster or omitting the final consonants.
What are the types of speech sound disorders?
There are two main types of speech sound disorders: articulation disorders and phonological disorders. Articulation disorders involve problems making sounds. Sounds may be substituted, omitted, added or distorted. This results in speech that is difficult for others to understand.
What is the Gfta 2?
The Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation-2 provides information on an individual's articulation ability by asking a child to make 39 spontaneous or imitative sounds in words, sentences, and conversation. There are three sections of the measure: Sounds- in-Words, Sounds-in-Sentences and Stimulability Section.
How is speech intelligibility assessment?
A percent-intelligible score is calculated for each listener by dividing the total number of words identified by the total number of words actually spoken by the child. When multiple judges are used, the child's overall intelligibility score is the average of the judges' scores.
What is phonological approach?
Phonological or linguistic approaches focus on the function of sounds to differentiate meanings, error patterns, and phonological rules that may be underlying the errors. Among the phonological or linguistic intervention approaches are a group referred to as contrast approaches.
What is the traditional approach to articulation therapy?
This therapy uses a hierarchical approach whereby therapy begins with practising the sound on its own e.g. /s/ to the end of the therapy where your child will be practising the sound in sentences and in their everyday talking e.g. 'I saw some seagulls at the seaside.
What is the complexity approach?
Within a complexity approach, targets are selected for treatment based on characteristics of the targets (e.g., developmental norms, implicational universals) and characteristics of children's knowledge of the targets (e.g., accuracy, stimulability).
How are speech disorders treated?
Many speech disorders cannot be cured, but by receiving speech and language therapy with a licensed speech pathologist, many children and adults can improve their speech or adapt to alternative communication methods.
What is articulation of speech?
Articulation refers to making sounds. The production of sounds involves the coordinated movements of the lips, tongue, teeth, palate (top of the mouth) and respiratory system (lungs). There are also many different nerves and muscles used for speech.
What is a functional speech disorder?
A child with a functional speech disorder has a difficulty, at the phonetic level, in learning to make a specific speech sound (e.g., /r/), or a few specific speech sounds, which may include some or all of these: /s/, /z/, /r/, /l/ and 'th'.
What is the differential diagnosis of developmental language learning impairments?
The differential diagnosis of developmental language learning impairments is based on behavioral evaluations that include audiological, neurological, psychological, educational, speech, and language assessments. Developmental oral language learning impairments are divided into two basic categories; Expressive Language Disorder, affecting language production, and Mixed Receptive–Expressive Language Disorder, a disorder encompassing both language comprehension and production deficits. Comprehension and/or production problems may occur within one or more of the components of language; including phonology, morphology, semantics and/or syntax. Problems with pragmatics (interactive conversational skills) also occur frequently. A high proportion of children with developmental language learning impairments also have difficulty with speech articulation; that is, difficulty clearly and correctly producing one or more of the speech sounds of their language. However, speech articulation defects and developmental language learning impairments can occur independently of each other.
What is the diagnostic assessment of ASD?
Diagnostic assessment of AS is made according to clinical observation of the symptoms represented in ICD-10 or DSM-IV-TR criteria. Children thought to be at risk for AS should be referred for a multidisciplinary assessment by a team with specific experience in the assessment of ASD ( Klin et al., 2005c ). This practice ensures that complementary disciplines are employed to differentiate ASD from disorders with overlapping symptoms, such as expressive language disorder. Interdisciplinary assessment should entail thorough developmental and health history and include the disciplines of psychology, speech, and medicine. Depending on the age of the patient and presenting concerns, specialists in the areas of motor function (e.g., occupational or physical therapists), behavior modification, neurology, psychopharmacology, academic preparation, or vocational training should be consulted in the context of the evaluation.
What is a criterion-referenced test?
Criterion-referenced tests measure what skills the child has mastered from either the set of skills in development sequence or from a curriculum used to treat children who are delayed in development. Criterion-referenced measures allow adjustment in the administration of items for children with sensory or motor impairments. Criterion-referenced measurement emphasizes the specific behaviors that have been mastered, rather than the relative standing of the child in reference to the group. They can be used to compare children with themselves, allowing longitudinal tracking of changes in development. That makes these measures useful for planning interventions and monitoring progress after treatment. Many federally funded early intervention programs use measures to determine if children qualify for services, to generate the objectives on the Individualized Family Service Plans (IFSP), and to monitor progress. Often criterion-referenced tests generate age equivalents or developmental quotients, rather than or in addition to scaled scores. Examples of criterion-referenced assessments are the Hawaii Early Learning Profile and the Battelle Developmental Inventory, Second Edition.
What are norm-referenced measures?
Norm-referenced measures require standardized procedures for administration and scoring, and generate age-adjusted standard scores. They allow comparison of an individual child with children of the same age. Norm-referenced tests are often used to qualify a child as eligible for early intervention services or other supports, such as Supplemental Security Income, and to compare the relative level of language skills in relation to other abilities, such as cognition or motor skills. Norm-referenced formal measures play an increasingly prominent role in the evaluation of children as they grow older and their skills become increasingly differentiated. Table 72-7 includes examples of norm-referenced measures. Receptive and expressive skills are usually evaluated in separate subtests, and the tests may generate subscale scores and a composite score. The pattern of subtest scores and the composite score is used to diagnose the nature of the child's communication problems and to determine eligibility for service and treatment plans.
What is the purpose of a diagnostic test?
Diagnostic testing establishes the clinical status of the child in terms of multiple aspects of communication abilities and performance. In infants, toddlers, and young preschoolers, the purposes of assessment are identifying children with delays and disorders who could benefit from early intervention services, determining eligibility for early intervention services, designing intervention strategies and targets, monitoring the effectiveness of treatment, and educating parents about strategies for facilitating communication development. In older preschoolers and school-age children, the purpose of assessment is often to explain academic, social, or communication difficulties, and to identify children in need of therapeutic and support services. Children with reading and spelling problems may have underlying speech and language disorders. Children with behavior difficulties may have comprehension and pragmatic deficits, or slow and effortful expressive language contributing to the behavior disorders. Evaluations at these ages are used to establish the nature of intervention and specific target outcomes. As children get older, assessments are more likely to provide insights into the prognosis for future functioning. At all ages, language and speech assessments are prerequisites for monitoring progress.
What is an SLP in special education?
SLPs are highly trained in the acquisition and development of speech and language; they are supposed to know the nature, causes, and best practices of SLD. In addition, they work with classroom teachers, special educators, social workers, psychologists, interpreters, cultural brokers, and families to ensure that children with SLDs from a range of social, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds can be academically and socially successful.
Why is it important to describe a symptom?
Description of the symptom is important in characterizing and differentiating speech and language disorders. Difficulty in articulation or vocalization implies a speech disorder, whereas the inability to find words, comprehend, read, or write is indicative of a language disorder. Differentiation of speech and language disorders has important ...
What are the two concepts that are important for understanding the behaviorist ideas of speech and language development?
Imitation and Practice. Two other concepts that are important for understanding the behaviorist ideas of speech and language development are imitation and practice . A young child will try to imitate sounds and words he hears his parents say the best he can.
What is the process of speech and language development in infants and children?
For normal communication to develop, the. re must be an integration of anatomy and physiology of the speech systems, neurological development, and interactions that encourage infants and children for communication attempts.
How do clinicians use semantic cognitive theory?
Clinicians use the semantic-cognitive theory by describing children's strategies for gaining new information. For example, the complexity of a sentence, the amount of information in the sentence, and the rate at which the sentence is said may significantly affect the way a child understands a sentence.
What is social pragmatic theory?
Social-Pragmatic Theory. The social-pragmatic theory considers communication as the basic function of language. This perspective is first seen in infant-caregiver interactions in which the caregiver responds to an infant's sounds and gestures. The prerequisites for the social-pragmatic theory are: 1.)
How do behaviorists learn language?
Behaviorists believe that language behaviors are learned by imitation, reinforcement, and copying adult language behaviors. They consider language to be determined not by experimentation or self-discovery, but by selective reinforcements from speech and language models, usually parents or other family members.
What is behavioral psychology?
The behavioral perspective states that language is a set of verbal behaviors learned through operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is a method of changing behavior so that a desired behavior is reinforced immediately after it occurs. B.F. Skinner is considered to be the father of the modern behavioral theory.
What is selective reinforcement?
When a child says a word that sounds close to what the parents say, they accept and reinforce it. In other words, they begin shaping the word until the child can eventually say the word as well as the parents do. An example of selective reinforcement: A child says "mama" when his mother starts to pick him up.
Client Needs
Clinicians use their clinical judgment when selecting screening tools, standardized tests, and other assessment materials. In the absence of other requirements, clinicians may use approaches as outlined in the following ASHA resources:
Test Materials
SLPs may incorporate recent assessment information from another source, such as a school or inpatient setting, confirming that the reported status is consistent with the observed status and that the client demographics still match the normative sample demographics when the standardized test was administered.
State Regulations
States define what information should appear in the medical record, in addition to how long clinicians should keep records. Whether or not test protocols are considered part of the medical record is not standardized; it may be specific to setting, state, or payer.
Payer Requirements
Employer and payer policies may require standardized test scores to establish a baseline or medical necessity. These policies may require a physician order or referral to reimburse.