Phonological Assessment as an Integral Part of Language Assessment

Abstract

Research indicates that preschool children presenting delayed phonological development are also likely to show delayed development of morphology, syntax, and discourse structure. Moreover, a child's phonological performance is typically better when labeling pictures and speaking individual words than when organizing syntactically more complex utterances as parts of narratives or when speaking in conversations. Such findings motivate us to assess children's speech sound development as an integral part of their abilities to organize language within realistic communication situations. To this end, we engage the preschool child in play and storybook topics that represent every day events. We use oral language scaffolding techniques to prompt the child to talk about sequences of acts within these events. We then describe the child's ability to (a) organize their discourse structure with respect to temporal, causal, and intentional links; (b) express semantic complexity; and (c) utilize conventions of syntax, morphology, and phonology. Our analysis ends with intervention goals that integrate all of these aspects of language.