Behavioral Language Assessment Part 1 (ABLLS-R) - 800 Words

Summary The topic for todays reading was Behavioral Language Assessment: Part 1 (ABLLS-R). One of the assigned readings, Language Assessment and Development in Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorders, presented several key findings emerged from a study of early language abilities in a large sample of toddlers with ASD. They found out that although the measures employed in this study to assess emerging language skills in toddlers with ASD involved direct assessment, parent questionnaire and parent interview, there was a very close agreement among these different measures. Also, they found that both receptive and expressive language were much correlated with a range of general and social cognitive variables and motor skills, and that the†¦show more content†¦Childs language skills are tested by presenting them with an increasingly complex set of receptive and expressive tasks. The primary goal of these language assessments is to identify a childs age-equivalent linguistic level, w hich are obtained by a comparison of the childs score on the test to the average language abilities of a large group of typically developing children. Language assessments that focus on age-equivalent scores, and the traditional receptive and expressive distinction, are less useful to parent and teachers who simply need direction for working with a particular child. Standardized language assessment do not give teachers or parents a specific starting point for developing a language intervention program. It is assumed that if a childs language age can be identified then the teacher can develop a language intervention program, and provide material that would be right for that language age. But, finding an age equivalent score does not help find specific linguistic problems, or help suggest strategies for where and how to begin language intervention. Finally, the standardized assessments do not separate the several different types of expressive language, and important distinctions and verbal deficits are often not identified which critical for the daily use of language in the childs natural