Chapter 5:
Assessment of Children with
Language Impairments:
Basic Principles
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
Owens 2014—the purposes of a
full language evaluation are to
determine:
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
Paul & Norbury, 2012:
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
Examples of variables:**
Divorce, family issues (e.g., death)
Peer teasing, bullying
Childhood illnesses (including OME)
• ADHD, drugs, alcohol
• Cultural factors
ASHA:
II. The use of Standardized (NormReferenced) 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
Test reliability must be
considered:**
• Interjudge reliability (vs. intrajudge
reliability)
• Test-retest reliability
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
There are sources of bias in the use of
standardized tests with diverse
students:**
• Cultural-linguistic bias
• Value bias
• Situational/format bias
• Examiner bias
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
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
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
For children 3-8 years of age:**
• The average TTR
is 1:2
• This indicates
performance
within normal
limits
Remember to evaluate the student’s
use of:**
• Questions and requests
• Complex and compound
sentences
• Declarative sentences
• Negatives
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
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
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
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
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
Nonbiased, informal assessment
alternatives include:** (explained in
next slides)
• Dynamic assessment
• Assessment of information processing skills
• Assessment of narrative skills
• Portfolio assessment
Assessment of information
processing skills:
In dynamic assessment:
Recent research:
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)
Portfolio assessment…**
• Collect student’s
work samples
over time,
evaluate how
much (or little)
progress has been
made
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
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
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
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
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