Autism | Smart Speech Therapy

Posted on October 19, 2014January 5, 2022 by Tatyana Elleseff — 7 Comments

Review of Social Language Development Test Elementary: What SLPs Need to Know

As the awareness of social pragmatic language disorders continues to grow, more and more speech language pathologists are asking questions regarding various sources of social pragmatic language testing. Today I am reviewing one such test entitled: Social Language Development Test Elementary (SLDTE) currently available from PRO-ED.

Basic overview

Release date: 2008
Age Range: 6:00-11:11
Authors:Linda Bowers, Rosemary Huisingh, Carolyn LoGiudice
Publisher: Linguisystems (PRO-ED as of 2014)

This test assesses the students’ social language competence and addresses their ability to take on someone else’s perspective, make correct inferences, negotiate conflicts with peers, be flexible in interpreting situations and supporting friends diplomatically.

The test is composed of 4 subtests, of which the first two subtests are subdivided into 2 and 3 tasks respectively.

The Making Inferences subtest (composed of 2 tasks) of the SLDT-E is administered to assess student will’s ability to infer what someone in the picture is thinking (task a) as well as state the visual cues that aided the student in the making of that inference (task b).

On task /a/ errors can result due to student’s difficulty correctly assuming first person perspective (e.g., “Pretend you are this person. What are you thinking?”) and infering (guessing) what someone in the picture was thinking. Errors can also result due to vague, associated and unrelated responses which do not take into account the person’s context (surroundings) as well as emotions expressed by their body language.

On task /b/ errors can result due to the student’s inability to coherently verbalize his/her responses which may result in the offer of vague, associated, or unrelated answers to presented questions, which do not take into account facial expressions and body language but instead may focus on people’s feelings, or on the items located in the vicinity of the person in the picture.

The Interpersonal Negotiation subtest (composed of 3 tasks) of the SLDT-E is administered to assess the student’s ability to resolve personal conflicts in the absence of visual stimuli. Student is asked to state the problem (task a) from first person perspective (e.g., pretend the problem is happening with you and a friend), propose an appropriate solution (task b), as well as explain why the solution she was proposing was a good solution (task c).

On task /a/ errors can result due to the student’s difficulty recognizing that a problem exists in the presented scenarios. Errors can also result due to the student’s difficulty stating a problem from a first person perspective, as a result of which they may initiate their responses with reference to other people vs. self (e.g., “They can’t watch both shows”; “The other one doesn’t want to walk”, etc.). Errors also can also result due to the student’s attempt to provide a solution to the presented problem without acknowledging that a problem exists. Here’s an example of how one student responded on this subtest. When presented with: “You and your friend found a stray kitten in the woods. You each want to keep the kitten as a pet. What is the problem?” A responded: “They can’t keep it.” When presented with: “You and your friend are at an afterschool center. You both want to play a computer game that is played by one person, but there’s only one computer. What is the problem?” A responded: “You have to play something else.”

On task /b/ errors can result due to provision of inappropriate, irrelevant, or ineffective solutions, which lack arrival to a mutual decision based on dialog.

On task /c/ errors can result due to vague and inappropriate explanations as to why the solution proposed was a good solution.

The Multiple Interpretations subtest assesses the student’s flexible thinking ability via the provision of two unrelated but plausible interpretations of what is happening in a photo. Here errors can result due to an inability to provide two different ideas regarding what is happening in the pictures. As a result the student may provide vague, irrelevant, or odd interpretations, which do not truly reflect the depictions in the photos.

The Supporting Peers subtest assesses student’s ability to take the perspective of a person involved in a situation with a friend and state a supportive reaction to a friend’s situation (to provide a “white lie” rather than hurt the person’s feelings). Errors on this subtest may result due to the student’s difficulty appropriately complementing, criticizing, or talking with peers. Thus students who as a rule tend to be excessively blunt, tactless, or ‘thoughtless’ regarding the effect their words may have on others will do poorly on this subtest. However, there could be situations when a high score on this subtest may also be a cause for concern (see the details on why that is HERE). That is because simply repeating the phrase “I like your ____” over and over again without putting much thinking into their response will earn the responder an average subtest score according to the SLDT-E subtest scoring guidelines. However, such performance will not be reflective of true subtest competence and needs to be interpreted with significant caution.

The following goals can be generated based on the performance on this test:

Long Term Goals: Student will improve social pragmatic language competence in order to effectively communicate with a variety of listeners/speakers in all conversational and academic contexts

Short Term Goals

Student will improve ability to make inferences based on social scenarios
Student will improve ability to interpret facial expressions, body language, and gestures
Student will improve ability to recognize conflicts from a variety of perspectives (e.g., first person, mutual, etc.)
Student will improve ability to resolve personal conflicts using effective solutions relevant to presented scenarios
Student will improve ability to effectively justify solutions to presented situational conflicts
Student will ability to provide multiple interpretations of presented social situations
Student will provide effective responses to appropriately support peers in social situations
Student will improve ability to engage in perspective taking (e.g., the ability to infer mental states of others and interpret their knowledge, intentions, beliefs, desires, etc.)

A word of caution regarding testing eligibility:

I would also not administer this test to the following populations:

Students with social pragmatic impairments secondary to intellectual disabilities (IQ <70)
Students with severe forms of Autism Spectrum Disorders
Students with severe language impairment and limited vocabulary inventories
English Language Learners (ELL) with suspected social pragmatic deficits
Students from low SES backgrounds with suspected pragmatic deficits

I would not administer this test to Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) students due to significantly increased potential for linguistic and cultural bias, which may result in test answers being marked incorrect due to the following:

Lack of relevant vocabulary knowledge
Lack of exposure to certain cultural and social experiences related to low SES status or lack of formal school instruction
Life experiences that the child simply hasn’t encountered yet
- For example the format of the Multiple Interpretations subtest may be confusing to students unfamiliar with being “tested” in this manner (asked to provide two completely different reasons for what is happening ina particular photo)

What I like about this test:

I like the fact that the test begins at 6 years of age, so unlike some other related tests such as the CELF-5:M, which begins at 9 years of age or the informal Social Thinking Dynamic Assessment Protocol® which can be used when the child is approximately 8 years of age, you can detect social pragmatic language deficits much earlier and initiate early intervention in order to optimize social language gains.
I like the fact that the test asks open-ended questions instead of offering orally/visually based multiple choice format as it is far more authentic in its representation of real-world experiences
I really like how the select subtests are further subdivided into tasks in order to better determine the students’ error breakdown

Overall, when you carefully review what’s available in the area of assessment of social pragmatic abilities this is an important test to have in your assessment toolkit as it provides very useful information for social pragmatic language treatment goal purposes.

Have YOU purchased SLDTE yet? If so how do you like using it?Post your comments, impressions and questions below.

NEW: Need an SLDTE Template Report? Find it HERE

Helpful Resources Related to Social Pragmatic Language Overview, Assessment and Remediation:

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post are the personal opinion of the author. The author is not affiliated with PRO-ED or Linguisystems in any way and was not provided by them with any complimentary products or compensation for the review of this product.

Posted on May 30, 2014January 5, 2022 by Tatyana Elleseff — 2 Comments

Why Do I Have to Tell You What’s Wrong with My Child? Or On the Importance of Targeted Assessments

A few days ago I received a phone call from a parent who was seeking a language evaluation for her child. As it is my policy with all assessments, I asked her to fill out an intake and a checklist to identify her child’s specific areas of difficulty in order to compile a comprehensive and targeted testing battery. Her response to me was: “I’ve never heard of this before? Why do I have to tell you what’s wrong with my child? Why can’t you figure it out?” Similarly, last week, another parent has questioned: “So you can’t do the assessment without this form?” Given the above questions, and especially because May is a Better Hearing and Speech Month #BHSM, during which it is important to raise awareness about communication disorders, I want to take this time to explain to parents why performing targeted speech language assessments is SO CRUCIAL.

To begin with it is very important to understand that speech and language can be analyzed in many different ways beyond looking at pronunciation, vocabulary or listening and speaking skills.

Targeted areas within the scope of practice of pediatric school based speech language pathologists include the assessment of:

SPEECH
- The child may have difficulties with pronunciation of sounds in words, stutter, clutter, have a lisp or have difficulties in the areas of voice, prosody, or resonance. For the majority of the above difficulties completely different tests and testing procedures may be needed in order to appropriately assess the child.

LANGUAGE
- Receptive Language
  - Ability to follow directions, answer questions, recall sentences, understand verbal messages, as well as comprehend orally presented text
- Memory and Attention
  - Also see executive function skills
- Expressive Language
  - Vocabulary knowledge and use, formulation of words and sentences as well as production of narratives or stories
- Problem Solving
  - Verbal reasoning and critical thinking skills are very important for successful independent decision making as well as for interpretation of academically based texts and complete assignments
- Pragmatic Language
  - Successful use of language for a variety of communicative purposes
    - Initiate and maintain topics, maintain conversational exchanges, request help, etc
- Social Emotional Competence
  - Effective interpersonal negotiation skills, compromise and negotiation abilities, as well as perspective taking are integral to academic and social success. These abilities are often compromised in children with language disorders and require a thorough assessment
- Executive Functions (EFs)
  - These are higher level cognitive processes involved in inhibition of thought, action and emotion, which are located in the prefrontal cortex of the frontal lobe of the brain.
  - Major EF components include working memory, inhibitory control, planning, and set-shifting. EFs contribute to child’s ability to sustain attention, ignore distractions, and succeed in academic settings.
READING DISABILITIES AND DYSLEXIA
- Phonological Awareness
- Reading Ability
- Writing
- Spelling

One General Language Test Does Not Fit All!

Children with speech and language disorders do not necessarily display weaknesses in all affected areas but may only display difficulties in selected few.

To illustrate, high functioning students on the autistic spectrum may have very strong academic skills related to comprehension and expression of language but may display significant social pragmatic language weaknesses, which will not be apparent on general language testing (e.g., administration of Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals -5). Thus, the administration of a general language test will be contraindicated for these students as it will only show typical performance on these tests and will not qualify them for targeted language based services that they need. However, by administering to them a testing battery composed of tests sensitive to social pragmatic language competence will highlight their areas of difficulty and result in a creation of a targeted intervention plan to improve their abilities in the affected areas.

Similarly, children at risk for reading disabilities will not benefit from the administration of general language testing either, since their deficits may lie in the areas of sound discrimination, isolation, or blending as well as as impaired decoding ability. So the administration of tests sensitive to phonological awareness and emergent reading ability would be much more relevant.

This is exactly why taking an extra step and filling out a simple form will result in a much more targeted and beneficial speech language assessment for the child. The goal of any competent professional assessment is to eliminate the administration of unnecessary and irrelevant tests and focus only on the administration of instruments directly targeting the areas of difficulty that the child presents with. Given the fact that assessment of language covers so many broad areas, it makes perfect sense to ask parents to fill out relevant checklists/intakes as a routine part of a pre-assessment procedure. Otherwise, even after observations in school setting, I would still just be blindly ‘fishing’ for deficits without really knowing whether I will ‘accidentally stumble upon them’ using a general test at hand.

Of course, even checklists need to be targeted by age and areas of functioning. Here’s how I use mine. When performing comprehensive fist time assessments I ask the parent to fill out the comprehensive checklists based on the child’s age. These are broken down as follows:

However, oftentimes when I perform reassessments or second opinion evaluations, I may ask the parent to fill out checklists pertaining to specific, known, areas of difficulty. These currently include:

After the parent fills the checklist out, the child’s areas of difficulty literally jump out from the pages. Now, all I need to do is to choose the appropriate testing instruments, which will BEST help me determine the exact nature and cause of the child’s deficits and I am all set. I administer the testing, interpret the results and write a comprehensive report detailing which therapy goals will be targeted. And this is why pre-assessment checklist administration is so important.

Helpful Resources:

Posted on October 6, 2013January 5, 2022 by Tatyana Elleseff — 10 Comments

Birthday Giveaway Day Six: Eliciting Language In Pre-verbal Children with ASD

Today it is truly my pleasure to bring you a giveaway from Maria Del Duca of Communication Station Blog entitled: “Eliciting Language In Pre-verbal Children with ASD: A Review of Behavioral and Naturalistic Therapy Techniques“.

This is a wonderful 64 page presentation which reviews the research supporting the current behavioral and naturalistic therapy techniques for pre-verbal children with ASD and explains how they are used to elicit verbal communication. It’s great for any educator who needs a detailed and highly comprehensive introductory crash course on the multitude of therapy techniques used with nonverbal children ASD.

Intended audiences:

Graduate SLP students
Clinical Fellows
New SLP clinicians
Mid Career Switch Clinicians
Ancillary educational and health professionals
Parents of children with ASD interested in learning more regarding research based therapy techniques

Select techniques discussed in this presentation:

Applied Behavioral Analysis
Discrete Trial Training
Verbal Behavior Analysis
Rapid Motor Imitation Antecedent
Milieu Communication Training
Pivotal Response Training
Total Communication
Picture Exchange Communication System
- And much much more

I remember when I was just starting out in the field and worked with non-verbal children with ASD, I spent inordinate amount of time looking for and reading much of the research articles listed in Maria’s presentation to learn more re: these approaches. Have I had this material it would have saved me a huge amount of time and effort. The way its written is logical, informative and clear. I like how the limitations are included with each technique’s review, which is a bonus since to read about each technique’s limitations one typically needs to locate even MORE articles, thereby spending even more time on this endeavor.

You can find this wonderful product in Maria’s online store 30% off for the next two days (October 7 and 8) by clicking HERE or you can enter my one day giveaway for a chance to win.

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Posted on May 14, 2013January 5, 2022 by Tatyana Elleseff — Leave a comment

Recognizing the Warning Signs of Social Emotional Difficulties in Language Impaired Toddlers and Preschoolers

Today I am exited to tell you about the new product I created in honor of Better Speech and Hearing Month.

It is a 45 slide presentation created for speech language pathologists to explain the connection between late language development and the risk of social emotional disturbances in young children 18 months- 6 years of age.

Learning Objectives:

Explain the connection between late language development and social emotional functioning
Describe manifestations of emotional behavioral difficulties in young children with language deficits
List formal and informal assessments relevant to toddlers and preschoolers
Explain why the warning signs of significant emotional behavioral manifestations in young children warrant a referral to related professionals
- Psychologists
- Psychiatrists Continue reading Recognizing the Warning Signs of Social Emotional Difficulties in Language Impaired Toddlers and Preschoolers

Posted on May 10, 2013January 5, 2022 by Tatyana Elleseff — Leave a comment

Being Functional is APP-ealing!

If you’ve been following my blog for a while ,then you know that I place a lot of emphasis on function. This is reflected in the assessments I select and the materials I choose. I want them to be practical, multifaceted, and useful for a wide variety of clients. My caseload at the hospital and in private practice is pretty varied with diagnoses ranging from über verbal high functioning Asperger’s to non-verbal autistic clients.

It is for the latter clients that I am always in search of more materials, since it is much easier to find/adapt materials for the high functioning verbal students then for the low-functioning non-verbal ones. Especially because you want to make sure that whichever materials you select are not just educational and functional but also fun and easy to interact with. That is why I was so excited when I got the opportunity to review Teach Speech 365 APP-ealing Functional Communication Packet. Continue reading Being Functional is APP-ealing!