The Speech Language and Articulation Screening Tool

1
SLAST

• The Speech Language and Articulation Screening
  Tool

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Development of a screening tool Peers 2006
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Speech and Language Screening form
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Testing a Preschool-age child with the SLAST

• Completing the articulation subtest portion of
  the SLAST with a 4 year old child. Picture
  identification and naming are assessed.

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Screening Tool Pictures

• Pictures were used to assess identification
  skills and articulation skills.

6
Searching the Internet

• Research was conducted using the internet to find
  information on available speech and language
  screening tools. Several internet searches were
  completed for this project.

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Testing a 2 year old child with the SLAST

• Testing a two year old child with the
  comprehension and sentence repetition portion of
  the SLAST.

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Data from Peers

• Of the 48 preschool children screened with the
  newly developed SLAST, 9 children were discovered
  to need further assistance of some type
  (articulation and/or language assessment and/or
  therapy) and these children were referred on
  accordingly. Referral types included a full
  speech and language assessment, summer speech
  services or a re-screening as applicable.

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Putting it all together!

• After reviewing this test in comparison with our
  current screening tool, we were pleased with our
  addition of more appropriate vocabulary, higher
  level grammatical structures, more appropriate
  questions and verbal responses to comprehension.
  In our sentence section, we also were more
  focused on use of personal pronouns, negation,
  third person singular, compound sentences, and a
  sentence with a dependent clause.

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Putting it all together!

• Our comprehension portion of the tool was divided
  into age appropriate levels, ages 3 to 5. We
  developed questions and categories for each age
  level that assessed their comprehension skills.
  After use of this tool on our 48 subjects, we
  felt as if this screening tool does efficiently
  and effectively identify children who need to be
  further evaluated for articulation and language
  disabilities.

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New state standards

• Based on No Child Left Behind, new state
  mandates are pending that require all screening
  materials to be standardized and norm referenced.
  This affects all children to 8 years of age.
  Therefore, while we stand behind the usefulness
  of our screening tool, we recognize that it does
  not meet the new state mandates, therefore, we
  are unable to implement it as first proposed. We
  also understand and appreciate that we could
  further explore norm referencing and
  standardizing this instrument.

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This concludes our peers presentation

• Any questions or comments, please feel free to
  address them to any team member. Thank you!