Assessment

What does assessment mean?

The means of gathering information -Assessment of language is hard! -The development of language is influenced by other domains (e.g., cognition, motor, social, etc.) -A lot of variability considered normal -Language expectations change with development -No cookie cutter approach

What do you do when conducting a language sample when the utterance is not fully intelligible?

Throw it out

How low is "low enough" to be considered language impaired on a standardized, norm-referenced assessment? (Trick question - consider sensitivity and specificity)

"Low enough" is whatever the cut-off score on a given test is. Also, for the purpose of receiving services, this depends on state criteria. "Low enough" is a balance of sensitivity and specificity

What are reasons why assessment is conducted?

-Determine whether a disorder exists -Track progress of treatment -Document change -Determine eligibility for service -Failed screening -Diagnose

Be able to match Brown's grammatical morphemes with exemplars of their correct or incorrect use

...

What is the minimum number of fully intelligible utterances that we want from a child in order to conduct an analysis, such as MLU, of their expressive language skills?

50

What is a cut-off score on an assessment, how is it used, and how does it impact sensitivity and specificity?

A cut-off score is the point at which a child with a score below is considered "impaired" Depends on the test being administered (at least, it should) Where you set the cut-off point will affect sensitivity and specificity (e.g., a really low cut-off point will give you great sensitivity but awful specificity)

What are examples of meaningful scores on standardized, norm-referenced assessments that allow you to determine how well a child performed compared to others of a similar chronological age? What is an example of a not meaningful score (uninterpretable to determine how a child performed) until you convert this score to a meaningful score?

A meaningful score on a standardized, norm-referenced test is the norm-referenced standardized score, which explains how well a child did relative to the normative sample of children their age (e.g., the number of standard deviations above or below the mean) A not meaningful score is the raw score a child gets on a standardized, norm-referenced test because this is usually only how many items a child got correct or incorrect, and is not relative to the performance of other children

What is the difference between screening and diagnosing?

A screening is used to determine if a child may have a language problem, and to refer for a complete evaluation, if needed (i.e., they fail) A full diagnostic evaluation is conducted to determine whether a child does have a disorder, what kind, and to what extent

What are two ways to increase MLU?

Add free morphemes Add bound morphemes

What is a standardized, norm-referenced assessment? What are the strengths and weaknesses of standardized, norm-referenced assessments?

An assessment with formal procedures for administration and scoring, with test scores indicating performance relative to other children of the same age, based on a large normative sample (at least n = 100 per cell) with representation from various geographic regions, gender, SES backgrounds, ethnic backgrounds, and linguistic abilities. Strengths -Gives you a clear picture of where a child is relative to developmental norms -Takes the guesswork out of administering and scoring Weaknesses -Not naturalistic; decontextualized -Require a lot of behavioral compliance; some children unable to participate -Often invalid for diverse populations; norms aren't always appropriate to population -Only a snapshot in time -May not be useful for developing goals

What are basal and ceiling? How do we interpret them?

Basal: entry level, where do we start a child? (e.g., 6 lowest correct responses in a row) Ceiling: the stopping point (e.g., 6 incorrect responses in a row) Used to minimize testing time, reduce frustration, and reduce fatigue

What is acceptable (aka: fair) diagnostic accuracy for sensitivity and specificity based on the guidelines provided by Plante and Vance (1994)?

For both sensitivity and specificity: Good: >= 90% Fair/Acceptable: 80%-89% Unacceptable: <80%

Why do we repeat aloud what a child says after they say it when we are gathering a language sample from the child?

Glossing will help you when you go back and listen to the recording to transcribe what the child said

How is language sampling used as a method of assessment? What types of questions are most appropriate, open-ended or closed-ended questions, directed at the child and why?

Language sampling is a more naturalistic, functional method of assessment. Open-ended questions are more appropriate as they are more likely to elicit more complex utterances than close-ended questions, like yes/no questions.

MLU is sometimes referred to as a general indicator of expressive morphosyntactic development. Why?

MLU is a relatively reliable method of comparing where a child is currently to where the average child of their age should be up to 60 months of age

Why do SLPs count morphemes instead of words when determining the length of children's utterances?

MLUm is more sensitive to language development at young ages when children aren't likely to use many words in their utterances

What is MLU?

Mean Length Utterance - average number of morphemes per utterance

How do sensitivity and screening change depending on if you are conducting a screening assessment or conducting a diagnostic assessment?

Screening: -Maximize sensitivity -Specificity will suffer -Do not balance the two Diagnostic: -Maximize sensitivity and specificity -Balance sensitivity and specificity -Acceptable level: 80-89%

What is the difference between sensitivity and specificity?

Sensitivity: proportion of impaired persons correctly diagnosed as impaired Specificity: proportion of typically developing persons correctly diagnosed as not impaired

What is the difference between standardized, norm-referenced tests and criterion-referenced assessments?

Standardized, norm-referenced tests have formal procedures for administration and scoring and compares performance to peers of the same age based on a large normative sample A criterion-referenced assessment is used to examine a child's performance to establish baseline functioning in an area and identify targets for intervention; not compared to peer performance