List of Language and Literacy Tests for Individuals using AAC

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

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) 2^nd 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. 

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)