Language
Language and Communication
Communication
Speech and Language Checklist
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
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.
-
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”.
Adapted from Riverina Schools Project
Special Education Support Service, c/o Cork Education Support Centre, The Rectory, Western Road, Cork
Tel: 021 4254241 - Email: info@sess.ie
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.
Age
Acquired
3
Sound
Examples
h
he, happy, hole
3
y
yes, onion
3
w
we, now
3
ng
sing, hanger
3
m
mum, summer, man
3
n
nut, under, sun
3
p
up, park, upper
3
k
car, kiss, cake, book
3
t
tap, tight , otter
3
b
be, tub, Bobo
3
d
dog, sad, daddy
3
g
girl, google, jug
3
f
if, phone, foot ,offer
4
l
light, bell, yellow
4
sh
she, mash, usher
4
ch
chew, match,
4
s
soap, scissor, boss
4
z
zoo, is, cozzie
5
r
red, arrow,
6
v
Vegimite, over, stove
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’.
Following is a description of these morphemes and the age at which children typically
learn to use these morphemes.
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.
articles
include:
the,
a and an.
theuse
cat,ofa
By
theSome
age ofexamples
6-7 yearsofmost
children
have
developed
a For
goodexample,
sense and
cat, an
animal. present tense indicators, pronouns, articles and most plurals.
past tense
indicators,
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
Example
Verbs that
indicate a
state of being
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
SCHOOL AGE SPEECH & LANGUAGE CHECKLIST
Version 1
Sounds:
No difficulty
Circle Error or Absent Sounds
Needs work
Morphology/Grammar:
Past tense
No difficulty
h
zh
y
w
ng
m
n
p
k
t
b
g
d
f
l
sh
ch
j
s
z
r
(5yrs)
v
(6yrs)
Comments:
Needs work
Present tense
No difficulty
Needs work
Pronouns
No difficulty
Needs work
Plurals
No difficulty
Needs work
th (8 yrs)
Comments:
Comments
Comments
Articles
No difficulty
Comments
Needs work
Sentences:
Verbs
No difficulty
Comments
Needs work
Circle conjunctions used
Conjunctions
No difficulty
Needs work
And
Because
As
Yet
Or
While
Since/Once
Whether
But
If
Except
Instead
Either
After
Until
That
For
Before
Unless
So
Though/Although
SCHOOL AGE SPEECH & LANGUAGE CHECKLIST
Version 2
Sounds:
circle error or absent sounds
Produces sounds correctly?
Yes
No
Morphology/Grammar:
Indicates past tense appropriately?
ed word endings (I walked) and irregular forms
(I went)
h
zh
y
w
ng
m
n
p
k
t
b
g
d
f
l
sh
ch
j
s
z
Yes
rNo(5yrs)
th (8 yrs)
Indicates present tense appropriately?
ing word endings (I am swimming)
Yes
Uses pronouns appropriately?
For example, he/she, his/hers, we, they
No
Yes
Uses plurals appropriately?
s word ending (two socks) and irregular forms
(two feet)
v (6yrs)
Comments
Yes
Uses articles?
an apple, the tree, a cat, this table
No
Comments
No
Comments
Comments
Yes
No
Comments
Yes
No
Comments
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
Because
As
Or
While
Since/Once
But
If
Except
Either
After
Until
For
Before
Unless
So
Though/Although
Instead
That
Whether
Yet