Using Evaluation Reports and Testing to Determine Interventions Flashcards
Communication evaluation or assessment
Process by which the SLP collects information, synthesizes and interprets it to provide recommendations for treatment when appropriate.
The SLP provides a diagnosis describing the communication or swallowing disorder of the client/patient (i.e. dysarthria for Parkinson’s disease)
Diagnosis is required to access intervention services in educational and medical settings
Recommendations for intervention, including monitoring and follow up if no diagnosis
Prognosis: estimate of future communication skills, influenced by age, severity, type of communication disorder, existing impairment (cognition, motor), family support
Function of assessment
Determine the presence or absence of a communication disorder
Document progress of communication skills over time
evaluation or assessment
Referral for assessment
Screening
Comprehensive assessment
Meets criteria for communication disorder – communication intervention
Does not meet criteria – monitor and re-assess
Provision of services
Provision of services depends on diagnostic or eligibility criteria. These criteria is very depending on setting
Communication assessment
Is there a communication disorder?
What is its severity?
What is the diagnostic?
After onset of treatment, need to document progress
Diagnostic label
Often sufficient for meeting eligibility criteria in medical settings and skilled nursing facilities
Schools and EI programs also have quantitative guidelines for eligibility
Severity of impairment 1.5 - 2 SD below the mean on standardized assessment (s)
Specific deficits in expressive and receptive language
Recommendation for services will vary within same Dx (i.e. impact on intelligibility)
Possible recommend re-evaluation
Tools of assessment
Screening and case history
Screening
Rapid assessment of a set of skills
Fail: Refer for full evaluation
Pass: monitoring
Case history
Collecting background information, underlying conditions, family history, other assessments and interventions, context of communication
Reason for referral
Interviews and questionnaires
Tools of assessment
Norm-referenced tests
Norm-referenced tests
Performance compared to a normative sample
Population sampled must be representative: sample size must be large, diverse, and include male and female participants from various geographic socioeconomic an ethnic backgrounds
Test must be
Reliable (same set of results when administered multiple times to the same person)
Valid (test measures what it is set out to measure)
Tools of assessment
Criterion-referenced measures
Criterion-referenced measures
Compare his performance to a predetermined set of criteria
Does not compare performance against some other norm or standard
Tools of assessment
Informal tools
Informal tools
Language sample analysis.
Elicit language sample, and then take specific language measures such as MLU
Variety of other language and discourse analyses
Behavioral and play observation
Dynamic assessment
Evaluate ability to learn new skills with support. [i.e. stimulability]
By opposition to static assessment
Performance judged by modifiability [change through mediation]
Client responsiveness
Examiners efforts
Generalization of new skills
Static assessments
Evaluate children’s current knowledge
Content bias, linguistic bias, and disproportionate representation in normative samples.
Standardized tests tend to overlook language impaired children and over represent children with lower socio-economic and diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
Dynamic assessments
Evaluates how a child learns and responds to instruction
Modifiability: child’s response during mediated learning experience, based on observation during instruction
Help identify children with language differences from those with language disorders.
Language difference:
Child can learn, retain, and transfer new information with adequate instruction
Language learning disorder:
Child has a hard time learning, retaining, and generalizing new information , and needs significantly more support
Areas of assessment
Infants, children, adolescents, adults
Hearing, feeding/swallowing
Communication
Oral-motor functioning
Speech
Articulation and phonology
Voice
Fluency
Language
Form (syntax, morphology, phonology),
Content or semantics
Use or pragmatics
Referral and counseling
Culturally competent intervention
Need ongoing collaboration with family and other professionals
Bilingual issues
Need to identify and overcome clinician’s bias [i.e. role of different language functions and their effect on child rearing practice]
Referrals
Counseling
