SLP Screening, Evaluation, and Diagnosis 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which standardized tool is specifically designed to screen for language disorders in school-age children?
- CELF Screening Test (Correct answer)
- Bayley Scales of Infant Development
- Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test
- Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation
Correct answer: CELF Screening Test
The CELF (Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals) Screening Test is designed to identify school-age children at risk for language disorders.
Question 2: During a dynamic assessment, an SLP provides mediated learning experiences to evaluate a child's response to instruction. This approach is most useful for:
- Distinguishing language difference from language disorder (Correct answer)
- Establishing severity ratings for insurance billing
- Determining eligibility for hearing aids
- Documenting baseline articulation errors
Correct answer: Distinguishing language difference from language disorder
Dynamic assessment helps differentiate language differences (due to cultural/linguistic background) from true language disorders by measuring how a child responds to cueing and instruction.
Question 3: A patient presents with difficulty initiating speech, effortful groping of articulators, and inconsistent sound errors. The MOST likely diagnosis is:
- Apraxia of speech (Correct answer)
- Spastic dysarthria
- Wernicke's aphasia
- Functional articulation disorder
Correct answer: Apraxia of speech
Apraxia of speech is characterized by effortful, groping articulatory movements and inconsistent errors in the absence of muscle weakness.
Question 4: The sensitivity of a screening test refers to its ability to:
- Correctly identify individuals who have the disorder (Correct answer)
- Correctly identify individuals who do not have the disorder
- Measure the same construct across repeated administrations
- Predict long-term treatment outcomes
Correct answer: Correctly identify individuals who have the disorder
Sensitivity is the proportion of true positives correctly identified—i.e., the test's ability to detect individuals who actually have the disorder.
Question 5: Which fluency assessment measure captures the percentage of syllables or words that are disfluent?
- %SS or %WS (percent stuttered syllables/words) (Correct answer)
- Mean length of utterance (MLU)
- Percentage of consonants correct (PCC)
- Token Test score
Correct answer: %SS or %WS (percent stuttered syllables/words)
Percent stuttered syllables (%SS) or percent stuttered words (%WS) are standard fluency measures used to quantify disfluency frequency.
Question 6: When evaluating a preschooler for language delay, the SLP obtains a spontaneous language sample. The primary purpose of analyzing mean length of utterance (MLU) is to:
- Estimate grammatical and morphological development (Correct answer)
- Measure speech sound accuracy
- Assess pragmatic turn-taking skills
- Screen for childhood apraxia of speech
Correct answer: Estimate grammatical and morphological development
MLU, measured in morphemes, reflects a child's grammatical complexity and is a key index of early language and morphological development.
Question 7: A clinical report indicating that a child scored at the 7th percentile on a norm-referenced language test most directly means:
- The child performed better than only 7% of same-age peers (Correct answer)
- The child answered 7% of items correctly
- The child has a 7-month language delay
- The child's score fell 7 points below the mean
Correct answer: The child performed better than only 7% of same-age peers
A percentile rank of 7 means the child scored as well as or better than only 7% of the normative sample of same-age peers.
SLP Screening, Evaluation, and Diagnosis 2
Which standardized tool is specifically designed to screen for language disorders in school-age children?