ACCURACY OF A COLLECTED SPEECH-LANGUAGE BODY OF EVIDENCE IN IDENTIFYING STUDENTS FOR SPEECH-LANGUAGE EVALUATION IN SPANISH

Teresa M. Gillespie, M.S., C.C.C.

Certified, Bilingual Speech-Language Pathologist

Carla Dominguez, M.A., C.C.C.

Certified, Bilingual Speech-Language Pathologist

Denver Public Schools

Special Education Assessment Services (SEAS)

HYPOTHESIS

If the current SEAS Bilingual Speech-Language Assessment Model is accurate in identifying native Spanish-speaking students who have been referred to SEAS, and who would or would not benefit from speech-language evaluation in Spanish, based on a review of the speech-language body of evidence, then the impressions formed by the SEAS Bilingual SLPs of the students’ speech-language skills after a review of the speech-language body of evidence will be similar to the results of the speech-language evaluations completed in Spanish for 90% of the students included in this research study.

RESEARCH STUDY DETAILS

36 students randomly chosen from students referred to SEAS for speech-language evaluations in Spanish

Reviewed the speech-language body of evidence submitted on behalf of each of the students, recorded our impressions of each of the students’ respective speech-language skills (i.e., need/do not need to evaluate), evaluated the speech-language skills of all of the students, and compared our impressions of the students’ respective speech-language skills after the review of the speech-language body of evidence with the results of the students’ speech-language evaluations in Spanish

RESULTS

91.7%

8.3%

Impressions Corresponded Versus Did Not Correspond

Impresssions CorrespondedImpressions Did Not Correspond

STUDENT SPEECH-LANGUAGE INFORMATION TRACKING FORM

Student Name:Student ID #:Date of Birth:ACCESS Speaking Subtest Score:Initial or Re-Evaluation:Language ofLiteracy/Content Instruction:

Information Known in Spanish

Information Known in English

How To Obtain Information(i.e., informal speech-language evaluation in

English, SEAS informal/formal speech-language evaluation in Spanish, SEAS

Speech-Language Skills Checklist, SEAS Speech-Language Probes in Spanish/English,

information in ENRICH, collection of a language sample in Spanish/English, parent

interview in Spanish/English, etc.)

Receptive Language(Able to correctly follow simple and complex oral directions, and correctly identify age-appropriate

vocabulary)    

 

     

Expressive Language(Able to correctly respond to simple and complex question forms, correctly label age-appropriate

vocabulary, correctly use age-appropriate grammar, and produce simple, compound, and

complex sentence structures) 

 

     

Articulation(Able to correctly produce age-appropriate

speech sounds at the single-word and connected speech levels, and intelligibility at the single-

word and connected speech levels)   

 

     

Pragmatic Language(Conversational turn-taking, number of

conversational exchanges, topic maintenance, eye contact, etc.)

     

Fluency(Part-word repetitions, prolongations, and

blocks)

     

Voice(Not language-dependent; roughness,

breathiness, strain, asthenia, etc.)

     

Resonance(Not language dependent; hypernasality,

hyponasality, and mixed nasality)

     

SPEECH-LANGUAGE MATRIX FOR NATIVE SPANISH-SPEAKING ENGLISH LEARNER STUDENTS

Student Name: Student ID #: Date of Birth:ACCESS SpeakingSubtest Score:Monolingual Spanish or Sequential/Simultaneous Bilingual:Initial or Re-Evaluation:Language of Literacy/Content Instruction:Newcomer or Number of Years in Host Country:Spanish Dialect (if known):

L1

(Spanish)L2 (English) Source of Information

(i.e., ENRICH, submitted speech-language body of evidence, observation,

language sample, consultation with School

SLP, teacher report, Speech-Language Skills

Checklist, parent interview, student progress

monitoring data, Speech-Language Probes, IC,

Teacher Portal, HLQ, etc.)

Conflicting Information

(i.e., responses during standardized testing

versus responses during a language sample,

teacher report versus performance during

testing, parent report versus performance during testing, etc.)

Receptive Language        Correctly follows simple one-step oral directions        Correctly follows simple two-step oral directions        

Correctly follows simple three-step oral directions        Correctly identifies age-appropriate vocabulary        

Expressive Language        Correctly responds to simple questions        

Correctly responds to complex questions        Produces simple sentence structures        

Produces compound sentence structures        Produces complex sentence structures        

Correctly uses age-appropriate grammar (i.e., conjugation of regular and/or irregular verbs into the first person present indicative verb tense,

the subjunctive verb tense; the preterite/past verb tense, etc.; plurals; clitic pronouns; gender articles; Subject-Verb agreement; reflexive pronouns;

etc.)

       

Correctly labels age-appropriate vocabulary        Stage of Second Language Acquisition        

Second Language Acquisition Processes (i.e., Codeswitching, Language Loss, etc.)

       

Pragmatic Language        (Conversational turn-taking, number of conversational exchanges, topic

maintenance, eye contact, etc.)       

Articulation        Correct production of age-appropriate speech sounds at the

single-word level       

Correct production of age-appropriate speech sounds at theconnected speech level

       

Intelligibility at single-word level        Intelligibility at connected speech level        

Fluency        Part-word repetitions        

Prolongations        Blocks        

Voice (Not language-dependent)        (Roughness, breathiness, strain, asthenia, etc.)        

Resonance (Not language-dependent)        (Hypernasality, hyponasality, mixed nasality)