Social Language Development Test

By Linda Bowers, Rosemary Huisingh, Carolyn LoGiudice

What is it? What is the purpose of the assessment?

Diagnostic test of social language skills Part of a larger program to instruct individuals and groups in
For elementary social language development in some of the following areas:
grades 1-6/ages 6-11: perceive and explain other people's perspectives
perspective taking make appropriate inferences based on visual and/or context clues
making inferences interpret logically multiple meanings of a given scenario
negotiating conflicts support others, even when that means bending the truth to be kind
flexibility in interpreting situations differentiate the true meaning of a spoken comment vs. the surface
supporting friends diplomatically meaning
 What are the key features?
Materials: Examiner's manual, Scoring Standards book, Picture Stimuli Book, scoring sheets
Four subtests with 12 items each (not arranged in order of difficulty):
Making Inferences Interpersonal Negotiation Multiple Interpretations Supporting Peers
Task A: Expressing someones thoughts Task A: Stating problems Task: Identify two distinctly different Task: Assume main character in a situation
Task B: Stating visual clues Task B: Stating solutions interpretations of the same photo with a friend and tell the friend something
Task C: Justifying Solutions that supports friend, even if its not true

What about the sciency stuff?

Reliability established by the use of test/retest reliability and internal Validity addressed through evaluation of content
consistency reliability validity, contrasted-groups validity, and empirical validity
Interrater reliability established through
rating by 10 SLPs

What are the rules for administration?

Examiner qualifications: only by a trained professional familiar with language disorders
Test environment: quiet environment and examiner seated across from student
Test procedures:
Start at item 1, regardless of student age
Present in a conversational style with normal intonation and normal speaking rate
Thoroughly review all instructions (after initial demonstration example, no items may be repeated, altered, or explained - even at student request)
Refrain from confirming or reinforcing responses
Prompts are allowed only if students response is unclear, and then only, What else can you tell me?
Multiple testing sessions are allowed only if the break comes between subtests
 How is it scored?
All subtests have their own rubric based on relevancy and quality
Scored as acceptable (depending on subtest, from 1-4) or unacceptable
(scored as a 0)
No basals or ceilings
If in doubt about score, examiner should
record students answer verbatim and refer back
to the Scoring Standards book after completion of the assessment
How are results presented?
Raw score for each task/subtest are converted to achieve three different
total test scores (age equivalent, percentile ranks, and standard scores)
Provides for visual representation for
comparisons of task, subtest, and total
test performances

Strengths: LIMITATIONS:
Easy to administer once learned Does not address all aspects of social pragmatics
Evidence-based Only useful for students that are fluent in english
Socially valid Not designed for students younger than six
Scoring is somewhat subjective and very particular

How can it be used to help make educational decisions?

IEP planning
Justify the importance of social skills training as it relates to reading
comprehension
Justify the addition of speech-language services
Make recommendations for further testing
Make well-informed, educationally-significant recommendations for
remediation
Instruction
Identify strengths and weaknesses as they apply to academic skills (reading
comprehension- making inferences using context clues, making
predictions, and writing - writing for a specific audience),
understanding school rules and following directions, interpreting
classroom interactions appropriately
Help students, teachers, parents understand the nature of the students
social language functioning