Screening vs. Comprehensive Evaluation
The primary clinical difference between a language screening and a comprehensive evaluation.
What is: A screening only identifies risk or the potential need for further testing (pass/refer), whereas an evaluation yields a diagnosis and baseline profile?
The standard score range on a standardized assessment.
What is 85 to 115 (or ±1 Standard Deviation)?
This is the main structural difference between a norm-referenced assessment and a criterion-referenced tool (like the Rossetti).
What is: Norm-referenced tools compare performance to same-aged peers, while criterion-referenced tools measure mastery of specific developmental milestones?
These are the three sequential stages of a Dynamic Assessment protocol.
What are Test, Teach (Mediated Learning Experience), and Retest?
This is the primary diagnostic goal when evaluating a child from a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) background.
What is differentiating a language difference from a language disorder?
These are two core components that MUST be included in a comprehensive early intervention assessment battery.
What are: Case history/caregiver report, hearing screening, or oral mechanism examination?
These make up the Core Language Composite Score on assessments.
What are expressive and receptive language skills?
This is a non-verbal communication behavior an SLP can observe during informal play.
What is eye contact, or pointing, or gesturing, or facial expressions?
This is what happens in the "teach" stage of the test-teach-retest model.
What is providing short-term instruction or scaffolding to see how the child learns?
True or False: Speaking African American English (AAE) is considered a language disorder.
What is False? (It is a rule-governed language dialect/difference).
Can an SLP diagnose a language disorder based solely on the results of a language screening?
No. Screenings only indicate if further testing is needed
This standardized assessment is specifically designed to evaluate early communication, gesture use, and symbolic play in children ages 6 to 24 months.
What is the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales Developmental Profile (CSBS DP)?
This is the type of score SLPs get on criterion-referenced tests instead of standard scores.
What are developmental age levels (or pass/fail milestones)?
True or False: Dynamic assessment focuses on a child's learning potential rather than just what they already know.
What is True?
An SLP may collect this from parents to understand how a bilingual child communicates at home.
What is a comprehensive case history?
This is the main purpose of a hearing screening during a language evaluation.
What is to rule out hearing loss as the cause of the language delay?
This is what a "norm-referenced" test compares a child's performance against.
What are same-aged peers?
An informal, non-standardized method an SLP can use to gather communication data directly from caregivers.
What is a parent questionnaire (or parent-report checklist/interview)?
Example: If a child easily learns a new word structure during a quick teaching trial...
What is an example of a language difference?
This is what happens to test validity if you give an English-standardized test to a child who only speaks Spanish.
What is the test becomes invalid (or results cannot yield standard scores)?
True or False: School districts sometimes screen all children in a grade level to find language delays early.
What is True?
This standardized test is frequently used to evaluate language in preschoolers aged 3 to 6. (2 possible answers)
What is the CELF-Preschool 3 or PLS-5?