Resource Toolkit
Assignment: Resource Summary Sheet
1.
Name of the
tool, or a brief description: List of Language and Literacy Tests
for Individuals Using AAC
2. What type of patient(s) would you use this
tool/technique with? (Describe by characteristics or by
etiology.) This resource is intended to be used by the speech-language
pathologist when determining what kinds of literacy and language assessments to
use with a client during an AAC assessment. Since this includes both adult and
pediatric-appropriate tests, the target client population is quite diverse.
3.
How/why
would you use this tool? In what way
will it be helpful? I would use this resource when choosing an appropriate
formal assessment tool for a pediatric or adult client. It’s critical that I
(or any SLP) know the tests well enough to be able to determine which are normed
for children and which are normed for adults. Testing the language and literacy
abilities of a client is critical in determining the type of communicator they
are and how to effectively program their device.
4.
What are the
advantages of this tool/technique? This list is extremely well-organized by
what is actually being tests. I also like that the tests are in alphabetical
order.
5.
Are there
any disadvantages to this tool/technique? I wish this tool were further
organized by normed ages for each tests (so you would very quickly know which
tests are appropriate for various client populations).
The next several
questions relate to how you obtained this resource:
6.
If you used
an existing tool, answer these two questions:
a) Source/citation for this tool: (whether
published, or from a course, or SPHSC materials) This resource came
from Dr. Dowden’s catalyst class page (which can only be accessed by current UW
SLP graduate students).
b) Did you modify this tool? If so, in what way? No, I did not modify
this tool.
c) Anything you still don’t like about it and
may change in the future? I would consider further organizing this list by
normed age for each test!
List of Language and Literacy Tests for
Individuals using AAC
Created by Dr. Pat Dowden
Created by Dr. Pat Dowden
Assumptions:
1. The common characteristic of these tests is that they
can be administered (in whole or in part) to individuals who cannot speak but
can select pictures/icons/text.
2. Tests should be selected carefully based on the
purpose of the testing as well as the target population, age and normative
information on the test.
3. The tests below test a wide range of abilities, from
very simple to highly complex skills
4. Whenever possible, standardized tests are preferred
over non-standardized tests
5. Whenever possible, standardized administration
procedures should be used.
6. If modifications have to be made, this must be stated
when reporting the use of the test.
7. One must not use a picture pointing test to assess an
individual who is unreliable at pointing to pictures (whom I call
“emerging” communicators). This produces only unreliable information.
Tests of receptive language: (Notice,
these are in alphabetical order)
Receptive
vocabulary:
1. Battelle Developmental Inventories (Newborg et al.,
1984)
2. Boston Aphasia Examination (BAE)
3. Bracken Basic Concept Scale – Revised (Bracken, 1998)
4. Clinical Assessment of Language Comprehension (Miller
& Paul, 1995)
5. Clinical Evaluation of Lang. Fundamentals (CELF). Selected subtests only.
6. Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales (CSBS)
(Wetherby & Prizant, 1993)
7. MacArthur Communication Development Inventories
(Fenson et al., 1993) This is parent
report; what are the challenges?
Research has found high correlations between parent report and
experimental probes
8. OWLS: Listening
Comprehension Scale. Can the results be
parsed for knowledge of syntax?
9. PLS: Preschool
Language Scale-4 or PLS-5. Some portions of Auditory Comprehension
testing.
10.Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) (Dunn & Dunn, 1997) One of the most commonly used tests
11.Receptive One-Word Vocabulary Test (ROWVT). This may not be not as informative as the
PPVT; Ceiling may be low.
12.Sequenced Inventory of Communication Development
(Hedrick, Prather, & Tobin, 1984)
13.Test of Auditory Comprehension of Language (TACL) Vocabulary subtest
14.Test of Language Development (TOLD)
15.Western Aphasia Battery (WAB) Only portions of this test can be used.
Receptive
syntax & morphology:
1. Assessment of Children’s Language Comprehension (ACLC) Very old test; tests from field of 3
pictures
2. Auditory Comprehension of Language – Third Edition
(Carrow-Woolfolk, 1999)
3. Clinical Evaluation of Lang. Fundamentals (CELF)
(Semel, Wiig, & Secord, 2003) Selected
subtests only.
4. Test of Auditory Comprehension of Lang. (TACL). Very old test, tests understanding of
morphology & grammaticality judgment
5. Test of Early Grammatical Impairment (TEGI)
(Rice-Wexler) Early grammaticality judgment; for 4-9 years of age. Child responds “right” or “not so good” by
speech or pointing
6. Test of Language Development (Hammill & Newcomer,
1996)
7. Test for Reception of Grammar – Version 2 (Bishop,
2003)
Tests of Expressive language: These
are difficult to use well with AAC users because they may have no speech, or
severely unintelligible speech, and/or limited vocabulary in a communication
system and/or limited knowledge about accessing/finding that vocabulary for
testing purposes. However, testing may
be possible if an individual speaks and that severely unintelligible speech
becomes “comprehensible” to you in a narrow context. You may be able to understand a correct
answer from the child when the options are few.
Be careful using this method, however, because you may not recognize
synonyms that would be equally correct, and you typically cannot test complex
language this way. But, to this end, you
might be able to use:
1.
Expressive
One-Word Vocabulary Test (ROWVT)
2.
Expressive
Vocabulary Test (EVT)
Tests
of Reading: (in alphabetical order)
Excellent online
resource:
http://www.sedl.org/reading/rad/
1. Analytic Reading Inventory (ARI). Pointing to words, given sound of word; not
for early readers
2. Accessible Word Reading Intervention (AWRI) This is an
intervention protocol but may have formal testing included. Software available
for free from http://www.elr.com.au/apar
3. CELF-Preschool 2:
Pre-Literacy Rating Scale. Very
early skills in emergent reading and writing
4. Concepts about Print Test (Clay, 1979). Preschool, e.g. orientation to page
5. Concept of Word Test (Clay, 1979). Elementary age vocabulary
6. Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills
(DIBELS). Preschool, pointing to
pictures
7. Gates MacGinitie Reading Test – 4th Edition
(MacGinitie, MacGinitie, Maria, & Dreyer, 2000) Variety of levels, Usually pointing or
marking correct answer
8. Group Reading Assessment and Diagnostic Evaluation
(GRADE) (Williams, 2001)
9. Peabody Individual Achievement Test – Revised –
Normative Update (PIAT) (Markwardt, 1998)
10.Test of Early Reading Ability (TERA). Normed to below 4 years
11.Test of Reading Comprehension – Third Edition (Brown
et al., 1995)
12.Woodcock- Johnson III (Woodcock et al., 2001) selected subtests
Tests
of Spelling: (in alphabetical order)
1. Developmental Spelling Test (Morris & Perney,
1984) (dictation)
2. Spelling Performance Evaluation for Language and
Literacy (SPELL; Masterson et al., 2002).
(CD-ROM based, criterion referenced, prescriptive spelling assessment)
3. Test of Written Spelling-4 (dictation)
4. Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT) (dictation)
Important clinical note: If the individual does well on spelling to
dictation, you will need to test them again without an auditory model. There are no tests that do this formally, but
I’ve used the following informally:
5. Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT). Type/spell some
words shown only picture
6. EOWVT or EVT: Type/spell
words shown only picture
Tests/Measures
of Phonological Awareness: (These include informal tasks, again in alphabetical
order)
1. Phonological Awareness Test (PAT) 2nd
edition. Particularly the Invented
Spelling Subtest
Robertson
& Salter, 2007
2. Assessment of Language & Literacy (ALL). Lombardino, Lieberman & Brown (2005)
Several useful subtests; particularly interesting is the Inventing Spelling Subtest.
Several useful subtests; particularly interesting is the Inventing Spelling Subtest.
3. Emerging Literacy & Language Assessment by Wiig
& Secord (2006) Ages 4-6, 9 – 11;
most of the test is reported to be useful.
4. Assessment of Phonological Awareness and Reading (APAR). Software available for free from http://www.elr.com.au/apar. The test was
“…created to avoid spoken responses, … that could be administered to
individuals despite their methods of communication”.
5. Brigance:
“Basic Skills” (I don’t have
details on this yet.)
6. C-TOPP: Which
version? Which subtest(s)? (How would
you decide)
7. Rime/Rhyme
(From: Rvachew et al, AJSLP 12,
p. 463-471)
Task: Listen to the name of the puppet and then
look at 4 pictures. Point to the picture
that matched the puppet’s name.
E.g. Puppet = “Dan” Options = car, house, boat, van
Variations: might name the options for support
8. Onset Matching:
(From: Rvachew et al, AJSLP 12,
p. 463-471)
Task: Listen to the name of the puppet and then
look at 4 pictures. Point to the picture
that starts with the same sound as his name.
Example: Stimulus = “Bill”; Field = hat, mat, bus,
truck
Variations: might name options for support
9. Phonemic Perception/Discrimination: (From:
Rvachew et al, AJSLP 12, p. 463-471)
10.Test of Phonological Awareness (Torgesen & Bryant,
1994)
Purpose:
Assessing the child’s ability to discriminate between sounds articulated
correctly from sounds articulated incorrectly.
Task:
Children were to point to the px of the word they heard IF that word was
produced correctly. Example: lake à “lake” or lake à “wake”
Stimuli: presented with a px of target word (correct)
and a large X (incorrect)
