Purpose: Syntax assessment and treatment is a major focus of speech-language pathologists who work with young children with language needs. The Index of Productive Syntax (IPSyn) provides an efficient method for the assessment of syntax of preschool-age children. The purpose of this tutorial is to illustrate how to hand-score an IPSyn from…

Dynamic assessment in the educational setting has been shown to offer many benefits for students with speech and language disorders. This chapter highlights the benefits of dynamic assessment and describes the limitations of static assessments. Because dynamic assessment can be implemented in many ways, three scenarios have been designed to…

The purpose of this tutorial is to guide speech-language pathologists in conducting speech and language evaluations remotely. Practical considerations, such as setting up the testing environment and the importance of conducting a pre-evaluation check, are discussed. Different item types and assessments are discussed with consideration of the…

Purpose: The impact of morphological knowledge on students' literacy development has been well documented. The purpose of this tutorial is to illustrate how school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) can target morphology in their interventions to support their students' literacy development. Method: This tutorial includes a review of the…

The sequential motion rates (SMR) task, that involves rapid and accurate repetitions of a syllable sequence, /pataka/, is a commonly used evaluation tool for oro-motor abilities. Although the SMR is a well-known tool, some aspects of its administration protocol are unspecified. We address the following factors and their role in the SMR protocol:…

Purpose: The aim of this tutorial is to support speech-language pathologists' (SLPs') application of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) in assessment and treatment practices with children with language impairment. Method: This tutorial reviews the framework of the ICF, describes the implications of the ICF…

The topic of special education can be confusing and frightening for parents who suspect their child has a disability or has difficulty learning. Parents in this situation want to know how to get help for their child. This guide is intended as a reference for people who have questions about special education for a child. It summarizes the basic…

The National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (NECTAC) reported 348,604 children received services in the United States under Part C of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 2009, representing 2.7% of the population (NECTAC, 2012). Early Intervention (EI), or Part C, is designed to provide services to families of…

This Special Issues Brief from the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders (GTL Center) offers recommendations for the design and implementation of educator evaluation systems that support the academic and social growth of students with disabilities. Teachers of students with disabilities work closely with specialized instructional support personnel…

This article describes a procedure to aid in the clinical appraisal of child speech. The approach, based on the work by Dinnsen, Chin, Elbert, and Powell (1990; Some constraints on functionally disordered phonologies: Phonetic inventories and phonotactics. "Journal of Speech and Hearing Research", 33, 28-37), uses a railway idiom to track gains in…

Purpose: This article describes the federal accountability requirements related to young children with disabilities and the contribution of the speech-language pathologist (SLP) to provide these data through the use of authentic, functional assessments. Method: The article summarizes recent state and federal developments related to assessment for…

Purpose: To provide a primer regarding treatment fidelity as it affects evidence-based practice (EBP) for speech-language pathologists. Method: This tutorial defines treatment fidelity, examines the role of treatment fidelity for speech-language pathologists, provides examples of fidelity measurement, and describes approaches for assessing…

Purpose: This article addresses sentence comprehension as a requirement of reading comprehension within the framework of the narrow view of reading that was advocated in the prologue to this forum. The focus is on the comprehension requirements of complex sentences, which are characteristic of school texts. Method: Topics included in this…

Purpose: The phonological systems of children with cochlear implants may include segment inventories that contain both target and nontarget speech sounds. These children may not consistently follow phonological rules of the target language. These issues present a challenge for the clinical speech-language pathologist who uses phonetic…

Research on the language development of internationally adopted children has increased substantially in the past few years, with a variety of methods used to measure language abilities in this population, including parent and teacher reports, norm-referenced tests, conversational and narrative language samples, and other procedures. These…