SLP Assessment and Intervention Principles 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A clinician uses a 'teach-test' format rather than a 'test-teach-test' format. What limitation does this introduce?
- It prevents computation of a learning potential score (Correct answer)
- It cannot be used with preschool children
- It requires a larger normative sample
- It eliminates the need for baselines
Correct answer: It prevents computation of a learning potential score
Without a pre-intervention baseline (test phase), the clinician cannot quantify learning gain or compare pre- and post-mediation performance.
Question 2: A client with dysarthria resulting from ALS is transitioning from natural speech to AAC. Which AAC strategy should be introduced EARLIEST in the disease progression?
- Full dependence on a speech-generating device with eye gaze
- Alphabet supplementation or topic supplementation to support intelligibility (Correct answer)
- Sign language as the primary communication modality
- Gestural communication system replacing all verbal output
Correct answer: Alphabet supplementation or topic supplementation to support intelligibility
Alphabet or topic supplementation can be introduced while natural speech is still functional, helping maintain intelligibility as it declines.
Question 3: Which of the following BEST describes the principle of 'intensity' in evidence-based intervention?
- Using high-challenge stimuli to push the client beyond comfort
- Administering more frequent, longer sessions with higher doses of practice (Correct answer)
- Focusing exclusively on a single target until mastery is achieved
- Providing intervention only when the client shows readiness
Correct answer: Administering more frequent, longer sessions with higher doses of practice
Intensity refers to dose (number of teaching episodes), dose frequency (sessions per week), and total intervention duration, all of which affect outcomes.
Question 4: An SLP administers the Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation-3 (GFTA-3). The Sounds-in-Words subtest assesses speech sounds in which context?
- Spontaneous conversational speech
- Single-word picture-naming responses (Correct answer)
- Nonsense syllable repetition
- Connected oral reading passages
Correct answer: Single-word picture-naming responses
The Sounds-in-Words subtest elicits target sounds through picture-naming, capturing production in a structured single-word context.
Question 5: Which intervention philosophy emphasizes that communication goals should be selected based on their functional impact in the client's daily environments?
- Medical model of intervention
- Social-ecological or participation-based model (Correct answer)
- Discrete trial training (DTT) model
- Developmental normative model
Correct answer: Social-ecological or participation-based model
The participation-based model prioritizes goals that improve real-world communication functioning across the client's natural environments and roles.
Question 6: A clinician is working with a child on phonological awareness. Which skill represents the MOST advanced level of phonological awareness?
- Rhyme recognition
- Syllable segmentation
- Initial phoneme identification
- Phoneme manipulation (deletion and substitution) (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Phoneme manipulation (deletion and substitution)
Phoneme manipulation—deleting, adding, or substituting individual phonemes—requires the highest level of phonological awareness and is the most complex skill.
Question 7: During a feeding and swallowing evaluation, a clinician observes the client coughing after thin liquids. To objectively confirm silent aspiration, the BEST next step is:
- Upgrade the client to a pureed diet immediately
- Order a Modified Barium Swallow Study (MBSS) or FEES (Correct answer)
- Administer a bedside water swallow test only
- Recommend thickened liquids based on clinical observation alone
Correct answer: Order a Modified Barium Swallow Study (MBSS) or FEES
Silent aspiration—material entering the airway without triggering a cough—can only be confirmed through instrumental assessment such as MBSS or FEES.
SLP Assessment and Intervention Principles 5
A clinician uses a 'teach-test' format rather than a 'test-teach-test' format.
What limitation does this introduce?