SPEECH & LANGUAGE CHECKLIST
M A NUA L
About the checklist
The checklist can be used in the classroom setting to help you gain a picture
of the speech and language skills of your students. You can use the checklist
to determine the students’ skills as they tell you a story. The checklist can help
you to establish a student’s skills in the areas of
-
Articulation
-
Morphology
-
Grammar
-
Conjunction use, and
-
Verb use
It is hoped that the checklist is a quick and easy way for you to gain a picture
of the speech and language skills of the students in your school. It is also
hoped that the students will enjoy the assessment activity of telling a story.
How to use the checklist to assess speech and language
Provide the students with two picture cards and ask them to tell you a story
about the pictures. When the students are telling their story, observe their
abilities in articulation, morphology, grammar, conjunction and verb use as
indicated by the checklist.
Tips for using the checklist
-
Read the information package that accompanies the checklist before
attempting to administer the checklist.
-
Familiarise yourself with the structure of the checklist and the aspects of
speech and language you need to look out for when a student is telling you
an oral story.
Produced by the Riverina Schools Project Partnership, 2007.
-
You may like to fill out the checklist after a student has finished telling you
their story or while they are telling you their story. Have a practise and
work out the best way for you.
-
You may like to record the students’ oral stories so that you can re-listen to
them. Remember that using the checklist is supposed to be a time efficient
way for you to gather information on the speech and language skills of
your students. Listening to recordings may prove time consuming
-
If a student does not provide you with enough information when telling their
story, probe for more information using open ended questions. For
example, “tell me more about the boy who was scared of the snake”.
ARTICULATION
Articulation refers to the way sounds are physically produced in the mouth.
The lips, teeth, tongue and jaw need to be moved into different positions to
make different sounds.
Children learn to say particular sounds at different ages. The table below
contains a list of sounds and the ages at which most children learn to say
these sounds.
Year
Sound
K
Age
Acquired
3
h
he, happy, hole
K
3
y
yes, onion
K
3
w
we, now
K
3
ng
sing, hanger
K
3
m
mum, summer, man
K
3
n
nut, under, sun
K
3
p
up, park, upper
K
3
k
car, kiss, cake, book
K
3
t
tap, tight , otter
K
3
b
be, tub, Bobo
K
3
d
dog, sad, daddy
Produced by the Riverina Schools Project Partnership, 2007.
Examples
K
3
g
girl, google, jug
K
3
f
if, phone, foot ,offer
K
4
l
light, bell, yellow
K
4
sh
she, mash, usher
K
4
ch
chew, match,
K
4
s
soap, scissor, boss
K
4
z
zoo, is, cozzie
K-1
5
r
red, arrow,
1-2
6
v
Vegimite, over, stove
3-5
8-9
th
this, than, other, thing, thin, bath
Not all children will learn to say sounds at the same age. If a child continues to
produce a sound incorrectly after the age at which most children can typically
say that sound, this may indicate an articulation difficulty.
If you identify that a student is having difficulty with a particular sound(s), use
the table above to determine whether they should be able to say that sound at
their age.
MORPHOLOGY
Morphology refers to how words are formed using morphemes. Morphemes
are the smallest parts of words that have meaning. The meaning of the word
‘dog’ can be changed by adding the plural morpheme ‘s’ (dogs).
Another example of a morpheme is ‘ing’. ‘Ing’ can be added to the word sing
to make ’singing’.
To assess a child’s development in morphology, speech pathologists look at
their ability to use specific morphemes. Following is a description of these
morphemes and the age at which children typically learn to use these
morphemes.
Produced by the Riverina Schools Project Partnership, 2007.
Past tense morphemes
 Past tense morphemes can be in a regular or irregular form
 The regular past tense morpheme is ‘ed’. It is attached to verbs to indicate that
the action took place in the past tense. For example, walked, pushed, and
laughed.
 Irregular past tense morphemes are words such as: went, ate, wrote and drank.
They are basically any words that indicate past tense without actually having an
ed on the end.
Present tense morphemes
 The present tense morpheme is ‘ing’
 It is attached to verbs to indicate that the action is occurring in the present tense.
For example, swimming, washing, running.
Pronoun morphemes
 Pronouns appear as a replacement for another noun. For example, in the
sentence ‘Mary and I went swimming and we both had new bathers’, ‘we’ is the
pronoun.
 Some examples of other pronouns include: we, them, I, she and he. There are
also possessive forms such as his, hers, theirs and ours).
Plural morphemes
 Plural morphemes can be in a regular or irregular form.
 The regular plural morpheme is ‘s’ or ‘es’. For example, dogs, cows and houses.
 Irregular plural morphemes include words such as sheep instead of sheeps, and
feet instead of foots. Irregular plurals can take longer to master.
Article morphemes
 Articles are found before nouns in the English language.
 Some examples of articles include: the, a and an. For example, the cat, a cat, an
animal.
Produced by the Riverina Schools Project Partnership, 2007.
By the age of 6-7 years most children have developed a good sense and use
of past tense indicators, present tense indicators, pronouns, articles and most
plurals.
CONJUNCTIONS
Conjunctions are the words that join ideas or sentences together. At 5-6 years
of age, children use basic conjunctions to connect ideas e.g. “and”, “but” and
“because”. As children progress through school they begin to use more
complex conjunctions e.g. ‘I cry if my brother hits me’, ‘She’s reaching up to
put the letter in the box’, and ‘she watched the TV while I washed the dishes’.
Conjunctions are an important component of sentence structure.
VERBS
Verbs are also an important component of sentence structure. Every sentence
should contain a verb. Verbs are not only action words. They also include
words that indicate a state of being (the dog is lost) or the undergoing of an
action (the dog got fleas). Verbs can also be in a contracted form (She’s
hungry). Further examples of the different types of verbs are outlined in the
table below
Type
Verbs that
indicate a
state of being
Example
I am hungry
We are hungry
I was hungry
He is hungry
Verbs that
indicate
undergoing of
an action
The girls have pretty hair
The girls had pretty hair
The boy got lost
Contracted
forms
She’s hungry
He’s lost
We’re lost
They’re lost
Produced by the Riverina Schools Project Partnership, 2007.
SCHOOL AGE SPEECH & LANGUAGE CHECKLIST
Version 1
Refer to Manual
Sounds:
No difficulty
Circle Error or Absent Sounds
h
zh
n
p
d
f
s
z
th (8 yrs)
Needs work
y
k
l
r
w
t
sh
(5yrs)
ng
m
b
g
ch
j
v (6yrs)
Morphology/Grammar:
Past tense
No difficulty
Present tense
No difficulty
Pronouns
No difficulty
Plurals
No difficulty
Articles
No difficulty
Sentences:
Verbs
No difficulty
Comments:
Needs work
Comments:
Needs work
Comments
Needs work
Comments
Needs work
Comments
Needs work
Comments
Needs work
Circle conjunctions used
Conjunctions
No difficulty
Needs work
And
Because
Or
While
But
If
Either
After
For
Before
Though/Although
Produced by the Riverina Schools Project Partnership, 2007.
As
Since/Once
Except
Until
Unless
Yet
Whether
Instead
That
So
SCHOOL AGE SPEECH & LANGUAGE CHECKLIST
Version 2
Refer to Manual
Sounds:
circle error or absent sounds
h
zh
n
p
d
f
s
z
th (8 yrs)
Produces sounds correctly?
Yes
No
Morphology/Grammar:
Indicates past tense appropriately?
y
k
l
r
w
t
sh
(5yrs)
ng
m
b
g
ch
j
v (6yrs)
Yes
No
Comments
Yes
No
Comments
Yes
No
Comments
Yes
No
Comments
Yes
No
Comments
Yes
No
Comments
ed word endings (I walked) and irregular forms
(I went)
Indicates present tense appropriately?
ing word endings (I am swimming)
Uses pronouns appropriately?
For example, he/she, his/hers, we, they
Uses plurals appropriately?
s word ending (two socks) and irregular forms
(two feet)
Uses articles?
an apple, the tree, a cat, this table
Sentences:
Uses a verb in each sentence
present tense verb (running), past tense verb (ran)
copula (he is sick or he’s sick
Circle conjunctions used
Uses conjunctions?
Yes
No
And
Or
But
Either
For
So
That
Produced by the Riverina Schools Project Partnership, 2007.
Because
While
If
After
Before
Though/Although
Whether
As
Since/Once
Except
Until
Unless
Instead
Yet