Speech-Language Pathologists' Assessment Practices for Children With Suspected Speech Sound Disorders: Results of a National Survey

Abstract

Most participants provided assessments that met federal guidelines to qualify children for special education services; however, additional assessment may be needed to create comprehensive treatment plans for their clients. These results provide a unique perspective on the assessment of children suspected of having SSD and should be helpful to SLPs as they examine their own assessment practices.

Evidence-based intervention for preschool children with primary speech and language impairments: Child Talk – an exploratory mixed-methods study

“…Studies have found that, although there are similarities in the parameters assessed, therapists differ in their choice of procedure, 63,254 and this seems to be related to clinicians' beliefs and theoretical perspectives. 261 In line with UK findings, the choice appeared to be influenced primarily by financial constraints although factors such as validity and reliability, versatility, efficiency, ease of administration and familiarity are also important.…”

“…A number of studies have explored the assessment procedures used by therapists working with children with communication difficulties and what influences the choices they make 253,254 and, in particular, what formal (standardised) or informal (non-standardised) assessments are used and how uniform the practice is across the profession. 253,255,256 Internationally, a high proportion of therapists report using informal, self-designed assessments.…”

“…253,255,256 Internationally, a high proportion of therapists report using informal, self-designed assessments. 253,254,257,258 Each method of assessment has its own strengths and limitations and, ideally, the determination of the most appropriate intervention should be made on the basis of information collected using a number of processes. 250 Formal assessment measures are usually norm-referenced and standardised, enabling children's scores to be compared with data from typically developing (TD), same-aged peers.…”

Estimulabilidade: medida auxiliar na identificação de dificuldade na produção dos sons

“…The stimulability test is used by 95% of the North-American speech-language pathologists (7) , who evaluate this ability by using tasks of syllable and word imitation (2,(8)(9)(10)(11) associated with the use of sensory cues (12)(13)(14) . Some authors use a dynamic evaluation of the stimulability by beginning the test with the application of simple stimuli, and, depending on the child's response, the therapist will be able to define the complexity degree of the next sequence to be tested (sound, syllable, word or sentence) (3,15) .…”

Investigation of Bilingualism Knowledge of Speech-Language Pathologists and Speech-Language Pathology Students

“…Dynamic assessment also measures the patient's motivation and zone of proximal development, or learning potential (Kapantzoglou, Restrepo, & Thompson, 2012). Skahan, Watson, and Lof (2007) had similar findings in an investigation in which the assessment procedures of English Language Learners (ELL) children suspected of having speech sound disorders were examined through surveying 1000 SLPs. Of 110 who reported having "non-native English speakers" in their caseloads, their findings revealed informal procedures were the most frequently used method (67%), followed by the use of English-only standardized tests (35%).…”