Standardized Assessment In AAC Evaluations

If you’re beginning an AAC evaluation, you may wonder how standardized assessments fit into the process. These tools can provide helpful information, but they do not always tell the full story, especially when a person communicates, moves, learns, or responds in ways that are not reflected in the test’s original design.

What Standardized Assessments Can Tell Us

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) website defines standardized assessment as an empirically developed evaluation tool with established reliability and validity.

Formal testing may be useful for assessing the structure and form of language, but it may not provide an accurate assessment of a person’s use of language (i.e., pragmatics). Standardized tests should be culturally and linguistically appropriate, and standard scores should not be determined if the norming sample is not representative of the individual assessed.

Read the ASHA article on assessment tools and techniques.

When thinking about how standardized assessments fit in AAC evaluations, the key part of the definition above is, “Standardized tests should be culturally and linguistically appropriate, and standard scores should not be determined if the norming sample is not representative of the individual assessed.” Consider whether or not norming samples represent the person being evaluated, and if the standard scores achieved by giving the test would be a reliable measure of their performance.

When Standardized Scores May Not Be Appropriate

Many people being evaluated for AAC have communication, motor, sensory, or developmental needs that may affect how they participate in formal testing. In those cases, modifying the task or the response modality for the individual being evaluated may be necessary.

Standardized scores cannot be used when assessments are modified because the tasks are fundamentally different (Barker, Saunders, & Brady, 2012).

The need to modify a standardized measure renders the standard scores achieved in that test unreportable, except as a comparison of the individual’s performance from one administration to the next of the same measure. Knowing this, be sure to include elements of dynamic assessment to the AAC evaluation.

Why Dynamic Assessment Matters

Dynamic assessment can be thought of as including the following:

• direct observation of language use in a variety of natural contexts
• observations recorded by the parent
• teacher observation
• other informal assessment measures

The goal is not just to complete a test. The goal is to understand how the person communicates across real situations so you can make thoughtful AAC recommendations.

Tools to Support an AAC Evaluation

Keeping all of this in mind, what measures could speech-language pathologists use to provide an accurate assessment for an AAC evaluation? Explore the following list of potential instruments and assessment tools that you can use in an AAC evaluation:

• Rossetti Infant Toddler Language Scale
• AAC Profile (Tracy Kovach)
• Evaluation Tools on the AAC Language Lab®

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Other Resources for AAC Assessment Tools as Suggested by PrAACtical AAC:

• Checklist of Communication Competencies, Revised (Bloomberg, West, Johnson, & Iacono, 2009)
• Functional Communication Profile, Revised (Kleiman, 2003)
• Social Networks: A Communication Inventory for Individuals with Complex Communication Needs and Their Partners (Blackstone & Hunt Berg, 2012)
• The Test of Aided-Communication Symbol Performance (TASP; Bruno, 2010)

Additional Resources:

• AAC Assessment Corner with Vicki Clarke: Standardized Tests for AAC Users
• Recommendations for Assessing Language Abilities of Verbal Children with Down Syndrome
• Assessing the Minimally Verbal School-Aged Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Comparing Methods for Assessing Receptive Language Skills in Minimally Verbal Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Standardized assessments can be one helpful piece of an AAC evaluation, but they are only one piece. A thoughtful AAC evaluation looks at the whole person, including how they communicate in everyday routines, what supports help them participate, and what tools may open more opportunities for connection.

–Clinical Documentation Specialists, PRC-Saltillo