Chapter 2 Review Quiz Now Available

Dear Friends,
It's time to discuss what we learned when we read over Chapter 2: Evaluation and Assessment. Here are my notes that I jotted down while reading this chapter. Please click the link to take the short quiz and share what you learned or re-learned. Even if you didn't read the chapter, you can take the quiz and help us get a feel for how SLPs out there are doing their evaluations and assessments.

Chapter 2 Quiz

Brief Notes on Important Questions and Interesting Things from Chapter 2

• Evaluation and Assessment are not synonymous. Woah, that seems important. According to my text.... 
• Evaluation: determining eligibility
• Assessment: describing communicative functioning, determining the child’s communication needs, and creating a program to address those needs 
• Team work! We work with other professionals who know a lot in their respective fields of study. I need to make more of an effort to learn from the other professionals I work with. Such a good reminder!
• Case History: What should we include in it? How to make a more relevant, efficient and appropriate case history for each student?
• Parent Interview, Teacher interview, team member input...IMPORTANT! I should make an effort to discuss the child with their teacher and parent more thoroughly as part of my assessment.
• What tests to evaluate which areas? This is something we really need to discuss and should be a whole separate post!
• Language sample analysis. Maybe I should make a more official rubric for what to look for in my language samples. What do you do with your language samples?
• While administering standardized tests. Keep the child in mind. Is he bored? Tired? Overworked? Don't give the hardest sections first.
• Make an assessment plan with: 
• areas to assess, 
• questions to be answered
• what to use to assess (standardized texts, criterion referenced measures, language sample, etc)
• I've never actually made an assessment plan but I can see how smart it is to have one! Maybe I'll make a form and try it out.
• What do you use to screen for language disorders? Maybe I should make a list of what things a classroom teacher can look for that might indicate a language disorder. Where would I find some good screening measures for language disorders for all ages?
• Classroom observations? Do we need to do them? I think we should! But I never have time. Guess I should make time. Are there any good language observation forms out there?
• Consider context! Observations in multiple contexts is important. It is important to see how child functions in ideal situations as well as difficult ones.
• Intralinguistic profiling: An idea of how a child functions in each area of language. This is something I haven't formally done in the past. It seems very IMPORTANT and useful! Note to self: make a simple form to help me make sure that I have at least considered each area of language for each child. It will help me assess strengths and weaknesses for each child and determine what goals to address. Reassess needs yearly, make a new informal profile every year!
• I need to really think through and research what criteria needs to be met for dismissal? 
• How often to assess each child? Frequently, but not all the time. Treatment time should be dedicated to treatment, but reassessing needs is important too. Maybe gather assessment data 4 times/year? Possibly, right before progress reports? What do you think is the right balance between frequent enough or too frequent assessment?
• Comprehension and production should be assessed separately.
  
  

  Domains of Language			Comprehension	Production
  Form	Syntax & Morphology	Inflectional marking of words
  		Sentence components (noun phrase, verb phrase)
  		Sentence Types (negative, interrogative, embedded, conjoined)
  	Phonology	Ability to produce sounds
  		Consistency of sound production
  		Phonological simplifications?
  Content	Semantics	Knowledge of vocabulary?
  		Concepts about objects and events
  		Semantic relationships among objects and events
  Use	Pragmatics	Range of reasons for communication?
  		Communication skills? (turn taking, topic maintenance and change)
  		Appropriately modifies speech for different listeners and social situations?