ACQ Vol 13 no 2 2011

Assessment

From the editors Kerry Ttofari Eecen and Marleen Westerveld

Contents

This edition of ACQuiring Knowledge in Speech, Language and Hearing focuses on assessment issues in speech pathology practice. Assessment of communication disorders can inform many aspects of speech pathology practice, including differential diagnosis, prognosis, treatment selection, treatment effectiveness, and service delivery. Claessen and Cartwright (in the “What’s the evidence?” column) discuss the importance of balancing “craft-based knowledge” (gained through clinical practice) with “science-based knowledge” in order to assess clients’ communication needs in an evidence based manner. However, they point out that it is currently difficult to achieve this balance because of the lack of research on evidence based assessment. Furthermore, Claessen and Cartwright report that although evidence based resources specific to speech pathology practice are available, most of these focus on treatment, not assessment. In this issue we hope to add to the assessment literature with a selection of peer-reviewed papers of clinical relevance, in addition to our regular columns. Baker and Munro review experimental and commercially available tools to assess children’s production of polysyllabic words. Although assessment of polysyllables is an emerging area

57 From the editors

58 An overview of resources for assessing toddlers’ productions of polysyllables – Elise Baker and Natalie Munro 63 Sampling and analysis of children’s spontaneous language: From research to practice – Marleen Westerveld 68 Assessing speech and language in children with cerebral palsy: A holistic approach – Cristina Mei, Angela T. Morgan, and Sheena Reilly 73 Clinical assessment of progressive aphasia – Lyndsey Nickels, Cathleen Taylor, and Karen Croot developments and directions for treatment – Kristy Jones, Anne Castles, and Saskia Kohnen 84 What’s the evidence? Evidence based practice in the assessment context – Mary Claessen and Jade Cartwright 88 Dysphagia assessment and management at the end of life: Some ethical considerations – Helen Smith, Noel Muller, and Trish Bradd 92 Webwords 40: Speech-language pathology assessment resources – Caroline Bowen 94 My Top 10 assessment resources (with a paediatric slant) – Suze Leitão 96 Research update: Measuring intelligibility – Anne Hesketh 79 Subtypes of developmental reading disorders: Recent

of research, it is important to consider it within the context of a comprehensive assessment because of recent research indicating a link between the ability to produce polysyllables, speech and language processing, and later literacy skills. Westerveld presents a tutorial on spontaneous language sampling relevant for speech pathologists working with preschool and school-aged children. The author states that although clinicians routinely use standardised assessments in their everyday practice, naturalistic assessment of communication abilities is used less frequently. She argues the benefits of incorporating language sampling in routine assessment of speech and language skills, which include determining the impact of the communication problem on everyday communication function, setting relevant treatment goals, and determining whether treatment gains generalise to everyday communication. A box at the end of the tutorial includes the contexts, conditions, and examples of further reading for paediatric speech pathologists interested in finding out more about spontaneous language sampling. The third peer-reviewed paper by Mei, Morgan, and Reilly focuses on assessment of the communication skills of children with cerebral palsy. The authors discuss the importance of holistic assessment in relation to this population, and provide an overview of how the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health for Children and Youth can be used to guide assessment of the communication skills of these children. They highlight that further research is needed to develop tools that will allow the holistic assessment of the communication skills of children with cerebral palsy. Nickels, Taylor, and Croot provide an overview of the assessment requirements of people with acquired language impairment, and more specifically, progressive aphasia. They argue that there are some similarities in the assessment requirements of people with progressive and non-progressive language impairment, but that people with progressive language impairment have some additional considerations that need to be taken into account. The final peer-reviewed paper by Jones, Castles, and Kohnen summarises six subtypes of developmental reading disorders. A list of suggested assessments is provided at the end of the paper. Most of our regular columns focus on assessment, including “What’s the evidence?”, “Ethical conversations”, “Webwords”, and “Top 10 resources”. Hesketh updates us on her research-in-progress on the assessment of children’s speech intelligibility, currently underway at the University of Manchester. This issue concludes with a summary of a select number of papers recently published in peer-reviewed journals focusing on assessment, and a list of resource reviews. We hope that this issue of ACQ inspires us as clinicians to reflect on our assessment practices, and to consider assessment in an evidence based manner.

98 Around the journals

101 Resource reviews

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ACQ Volume 13, Number 2 2011

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