Attention Scales

1982

Continuous

The attention scales are used to rate a student’s attention span and level.

The profile describes six different developmental stages to attention and attention control that the authors identified children go through naturally and which support language development. 

Stage 1 is extreme distractibility – normal in the first year of a child’s life 

Stage 2 the child can concentrate for some time on a concrete task of their own choice and this broadly equates to children in their second year

Stage 3 the child’s attention is single channelled but they can shift from task to directions and back to the task if directed by an adult

Stage 4 coincides with a child’s fourth year and whilst their attention is single channelled they can maintain their focus on instructions and verbal information for themselves without any support

Stage 5 the child can respond to verbal directions that relate to the task they are focused on without needing to interrupt the task activity

Stage 6 in this hierarchy is reached when a child can sustain stage 5 attention control.

Observational data used to identify attention level

Boehm Test of Basic Concepts - School age version

A.E. Boehm

2001

5 to 7 years

20 minutes

Evaluates a child’s ability to understand 50 basic concepts identified as necessary in School.

The child is presented with a paper booklet and for each test item, asked to circle the picture that matches a specific concept contained in the verbal instruction read out by the adult.  There are 50 test items and the concepts in the test fall into four language groups – temporal, prepositional, mathematical and miscellaneous.

Percentile rank score is calculated

British Picture Vocabulary Scales (BPVS) version 3

Douglas M Dunn

2011

3 years to adult

10 to 15 minutes

The BPVS measures a child's understanding of spoken words.

The assessment uses large-format, vividly coloured illustrations.  The child is asked to select from 4 pictures the one that best represents the word read out to them.  Responses can be provided through pointing or gesturing, making the assessment suitable for non-readers and children with specific learning difficulties or expressive language impairment.  When combined with a measure of school attainment, BPVS3 should help identify students whose academic performance is below their potential.

Percentile rank and age equivalent scores are calculated

CLEAR Assessment of Phonology

M. Keeling

2006

3 years +

20 minutes

The CLEAR Phonology Screen Assessment comprehensively covers all the phonemes of English in all relevant syllable positions. Each phoneme has its own page of coloured drawings which gives easy flexibility to the tester to target specific sounds if a child's attention is wandering or to challenge their informal observations quickly or indeed take a speedy review at the end of a regular session. The drawings are clear, enthusiastic & colourful. The CLEAR Assessment facilitates mapping out a child’s sound system for sound error and position in a word.  If required it is the screen provides an indication of an age equivalence with broad age bands although not a precise scale.

Profiles sound errors and provides broad indication of equivalent age

The Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF) version 5

Elizabeth H Wiig, Eleanor Semel & Wayne A Secord

2017

5 years to 21:11 years

45 to 60 minutes

The CELF measures across the range of language skills – receptive language, expressive language, pragmatic and higher level language skills.

There are 14 subtests that assess different aspects of language - Observational Rating Scale, Sentence Comprehension, Linguistic Concepts, Word Structure, Word Classes, Following Directions, Formulated Sentences, Recalling Sentences, Understanding Spoken Paragraphs, Word Definitions, Sentence Assembly, Semantic Relationships, Pragmatics Profile and Pragmatic Activities Checklist.  Different predetermined combinations of these subtests are used to calculate Index scores for the child’s Core Language, Receptive Language, Expressive Language, Language Content and Language Memory – the combination of subtests used is dependent on the child’s age and three broad age groups – 5 to 8 years , 9 to 12 years and 13 to 21 years.  Further calculations can be made to determine the difference between the different index language scores.

Percentile rank and age equivalent scores calculated

Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Meta (CELF Meta) version 5

Elizabeth H. Wiig and Wayne A. Secord

2014

9 to 21 years

45 minutes

Identifies students who understand basic concepts and can speak in grammatically correct sentences but lack the higher-level language skills.

The assessment is made up of 1 questionnaire/checklist – Metalinguistics Profile (MP) -  and 4 assessment tasks Making Inferences (MI), Conversation Skills (CS), Multiple Meanings (MM) and Figurative Language (FL).  

The MI subtest is used to evaluate the ability to identify and formulate logical inferences on the basis of existing causal relationships or event chains presented in short narrative texts. The student listens to the examiner describe a situation by its beginning and ending. The situation is also presented visually in text form.  The student then identifies the best two out of four reasons given for the ending and provides another reason of their own to explain the situation.  The CS subtest evaluates the ability of the student to initiate a conversation or respond in a way that is relevant and pragmatically appropriate to the context and audience. The student is presented with a picture that creates a conversational context and is asked to create a semantically and syntactically correct sentence using the 2 or 3 words that are printed alongside the picture that could be spoken by one of the characters in the illustration.

The MM subtest is used to evaluate the ability to recognize and interpret different meanings of selected lexical (word-level) and structural (sentence-level) ambiguities. The examiner presents a sentence orally and visually (in text) that contains ambiguity at either the word or sentence level and the student is asked to describe two meanings for each sentence that is presented.  The FL subtests The Figurative Language test is used to evaluate the ability to interpret figurative expressions (idioms) within a given context and match each expression with another figurative expression of similar meaning. The examiner presents a situation and an expression that one of the characters might use within that; both the situation and the expression are presented verbally and visually (in text). The student is asked to describe what the expression means. This is followed up with a second part of the task and the student is presented with  four other figurative expressions and asked to select the one with the meaning that is closest to the first expression.

Three combinations of the four assessment tasks are used to calculate a Total Metalinguistics Index (TMI), Meta Pragmatics Index (MPI) and Meta Semantics Index (MSI).  The latter two are compared and it is possible to determine if there is a statistical difference between the MSI and MPI. 

Percentile rank and age equivalent scores are calculated

Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation & Phonology (DEAP)

B. Dodd, Z. Hua, S. Crosbie, A. Holm, A. Ozane

2006

3 to 8:11 years

20 minutes

An assessment to differentiate between articulation, phonology and oral motor disorders.

Dependent on the errors identified on the Screen, there are four different test forms and picture stimuli that are then selected to use – articulation, phonology, inconsistency and oral motor.  Use is not restricted to just one of the four parts.  The colourful pictures are presented and the child names the item which is recorded and then transcribed and can be used to profile the child’s speech.

Percentile rank scores are calculated.

Discourse Analysis

Rebecca Matthews adapted from the work of Lindsey Pennington & Helen McConachie

2012

3 years to adult

Continuous

This is an informal observational tool to categorise the types of communication intentions used by any individual.

Utterances are recorded and reviewed to determine their purpose or intention.  There are three communication intention categories – intentions that PROVIDE (information, feedback, stalls, clarification and prompts), intentions that REQUEST (information, action or objects, clarification, attention) and a third category of utterances that do not fit into either a Request or Provide but a defined purpose (confirm or deny). 

Observational data only

The Expression, Reception & Recall of Narrative Instrument (ERRNI)

Dorothy Bishop

2004

6 years to adult

8 to 10 minutes

The ERRNI has been designed to assess a child’s ability

1.    to create a story with relevant information 

2.    the complexity of the grammar that they use

3.    their comprehension of an illustrated situation

4.    recall ability to determine their long term memory storage

Two parallel stories – The Beach Story or The Fish Story - are set out in a sequenced story of 15 scenes. Retell of The Beach Story or The Fish Story is requested at least 20 minutes after the first narrative has been made.  Both narratives are recorded - with and without visual cues - and a series of comprehension questions are asked after the second narrative. The narratives are transcribed and analysed. The two stories allow for retesting while minimising practice effect.

Percentile rank scores are calculated

Fletcher count by syllable DDK rate

Sam Fletcher

1972

3 years +

Although abn old assessment it remains useful and is a standardised test for children aged 6 years to adult competency at 13 years.  The child is asked to repeat a five different consonant + vowel syllables for 20 repetitions which is timed; any distortions or sound substitutions or articulatory errors are noted.  At the next level the child is asked to repeat two syllables for 15 repetitions and then a final three sound syllable for ten repetitions – as with the first level each task is timed and errors or distortions noted.  Timed performance is then compared to the table of mean scores for children of the same age repeating the same syllables.

Standard deviation score

The Goodenough Draw a Man Test

Florence Goodenough

1926

3 years to adult

10 minutes

The Goodenough Draw a Man Test is used to evaluate a child’s cognitive ability and intellectual maturity and so manage expectations of their language abilities.

The child is asked to draw a full body drawing of themselves which is then rated for the features that are distinct and included and this forms the age equivalent calculation of the child’s  drawing.

Age Equivalent score calculated

Laterality Assessment

Unknown

Pre 1984

3 to adult age

10 minutes

The laterality is an informal assessment that maps the student’s laterality profile.

The student is asked to handle a number of objects to determine which hand, ear, foot and eye they prefer to and so map out their dominant hand, eye, ear and foot and a laterality profile.  Some of the tasks may be based in learnt behaviour e.g. throwing and catching a ball, writing and drawing whilst others are intuitive e.g. looking through a telescope, holding a watch to your ear, untwisting a bottle top or winding up a mechanical toy. 

There is no wrong or right to this but a pattern is shown which needs to be consistent and organised; a pattern that is disorganised indicates that the child’s brain is not firmly organised for language and so processing of verbal language is highly likely to be weak and based on clinical experience the child takes longer to consolidate new language skills.

Observational data only

Living Language

A. Locke

1984

12 months+

Observation

Living Language is a checklist  made up of three levels – Pre language, First Words and Syntax Profile – which underpin a programme to monitor and provide a guide for language development.  The focus of Living Language is entirely on a child’s expressive language.

The Pre language checklist organises observations into a developmental checklist across four aspects of early language development – social emotional development, play, listening skills and expressive skills.  There is an overall summary sheet but each of the four aspects has a detailed checklist of responses or actions to note in the child.  The checklist enables an age equivalent rating for each aspect from 0 months to 2 years.

The First Words checklist sets out a range of 100 words that might be typically expected to be in the vocabulary of an 18 month old child as they start to acquire language.  The 100 word vocabulary splits into three key aspects – nouns, verbs and other words that include some adjectives, yes and no, as well as some positional and mathematical language.  The author of this checklist reasoned that the children that were struggling to combine words unlike their typically developing peers needed more than the usual 20 words in their vocabulary before they would be able to combine words into short sentences; she advised that children struggling to acquire language needed to have a key vocabulary of 100 words – the majority nouns (50%), with verbs making up the second priority (40%) and miscellaneous or other words the smallest group (10%).

The Syntax Profile checklist sets out key aspects of syntax or grammar across 6 levels that broadly follow a developmental sequence and increasing refinement.  The key syntax markers are articles/preposition, pronouns, possessive, demonstratives/quantifiers, plurals, conjunctions, positive verbs, negative verbs, verb questions and finally Wh question words. 

Observations organised into formal checklist to provide gauge on child’s equivalent age

Renfrew Action Picture Test

Catherine Renfrew

1967

3 to 8½  years

10 minutes

The child is presented with ten picture cards and asked a question about each that prompts a response that uses particular forms of grammar.  The child’s response is recorded and the information conveyed and level of grammatical skill is calculated.

Age equivalent score

Renfrew Bus Story Test

Catherine Renfrew

1967

3 to 8½ years

10 minutes

In the Renfrew Bus Story Test, the tester read a story about a naughty bus to XXX; the story accompanies a series of 12 pictures; after the story had been told, Oliver was asked to retell the story with the pictures to aid them.  His story was written in full and scored for the information contained along with subordinate clauses and mean length of utterance; the latter two aspects provide an indication of X XXr’s expressive language.  All scores are provided as age equivalent scores.

Age equivalent score

Renfrew Expressive Vocabulary Test 5^th Edition (REV)

C. Renfrew (original) A. Branagan & S. Parsons

2023

3 to 11:11 years

15 minutes

The REV is an easy tool to assess children’s expressive vocabulary.

This latest edition - 5^th - has been comprehensively updated and extended with the modernisation of images and words, and, through an extensive nation-wide programme, fully re-standardised against a contemporary school population, making the REV a trusted first-line tool in speech and language assessment.  The REV assesses the extent to which 100 pictures of words – nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs - arranged in order of difficulty, can be named correctly. 

Percentile rank score is calculated

South Tyneside Assessment of Phonology (STAP)

Susan Armstrong & Maureen Ainley

1987

3 to 11 years

15 to 20 minutes

The child is presented with pictures which they are asked to name.  Their responses are recorded and then transcribed onto a form that allows the assessor to identify where the errors for a particular sound are most likely – initial, medial or final word position.

Profiles sound errors

South Tyneside Assessment of Syntactic Structures (STASS)

Susan Armstrong & Maureen Ainley

1987

3 to 6 years

10 minutes

The child answers questions about pictures presented to them that are designed to elicit different forms of grammar.  The grammar elicited is a wide range and includes present, past, imperfect, future and passive verb forms as well as auxillary verb tenses in singular and plural form; it also includes simple and condensed negation; subject verb inversion to create a question as well as wh question words – specifically ‘where’; a wide range of adjective and preposition phrases, use of definite determiners i.e. ‘the’ vs ‘a’;  pronouns including possessive pronouns and possessive ‘s’; the use of simple conjunctions such as ‘and’ and more complex such as ‘because’. 

The features of syntax at clause, phrase and word level are noted and entered onto a summary sheet. The test booklet has charts showing expected mastery of features at ages 3, 4 and 5. From these charts and the summary sheet, practitioners can work out the stage the child has reached in developing spoken language and possible areas which will emerge soon. This can inform the child’s language programme, not to teach grammar but to devise activities which will model new constructions and elicit and practise more complex

language

Observational/Qualitative

Test of Abstract Language Comprehension (TALC)

Henrietta McLachlan and Liz Elks

1978

5 years to 14 years

10 to 20 minutes

The TALC measures a child’s ability to understand abstract language in the Language of Learning Model framework more commonly referred to as the Blank Language Scheme.

The TALC is a series of 6 A4 bold colourful pictures; for each picture the child is asked questions that link to the four Language Levels in the Blank Language Scheme. At level one the child has to name, at level 2  describe, level 3  retell and at level 4 justify. To establish a child can process language at each of these four levels they must achieve 80% correct answers – the competency level expected for a typical 5 year old.

% score related to competency based on performance of 5 year old

The Test for Reception of Grammar 2 (TROG)

Dorothy Bishop

2003

4 years to adult

10 to 20 minutes

The TROG measures the individual’s understanding of grammatical constructs.

The child is presented with four pictures and asked to identify which picture matches to the sentence read out to them.  For each of the 20 forms of grammar there are 4 trials and the child must select the correct picture for each of those 4 trials to score; requests for repetitions are recorded and the number given a typical or atypical rating.

Percentile rank and age equivalent scores are calculated

Token Test for Children

F.G. DiSimoni

1982

3 years to 12 years

10 to 15 minutes

The Token Test for Children assesses a child’s ability to recall key amounts of information and a basic range of conceptual language.

20 tokens, in two sizes (large and small) and two shapes  (circle and square) five colours (blue, green, yellow, white, and red) are presented and the child is asked to identify a specific token or in the last part of the test to move tokens following an instruction that contains various conceptual language – conditional, positional, temporal, negative. The five levels increase in difficulty.

Standard deviation scores are identified