Interpreting the Language Assessment

Summary

The topic for today’s reading was, Interpreting the Language Assessment. In one of the assigned readings, Interpreting the Behavioral Language Assessment, emphasized that the purpose of the behavioral assessment is to provide the tester with enough information to design an individualized language intervention program for a specific child. Therefore, to establish an effective intervention program for particular child the tester must identify the most appropriate starting point for initial training. The tester should review each skill in relation to the entire set of skills identified in the assessment. It is usually best to focus on the development of a few key language areas at one time, even though the child may have weaknesses in several of the areas reviewed by the assessment. Also, it is important that the tester not simply pick the areas with the lowest scores and recommend training begin in those areas, because is very important to ensure that the instructor is able to observe the learner acquiring skills relatively short period of time, in order to maintain his motivation to continue conducting language training activities. Only a few areas are selected for the initial intervention, and the focus of the intervention will be continuously changed as the student acquires new skills. Finally, the language intervention program develops the child’s skills such that he could score at least a five on each of the areas of the assessment. This score of five in a specific area may indicate that a particular skill area may not require as intensive intervention as those skills with a lower score. Furthermore, for the second reading, The Benefits of Skinner’s Analysis of Verbal Behavior for Children with Autism, stated t...

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...he other hand, I like how this approach emphasized a unit of analysis consisting of the relations between behavior, motivate and discriminative variables, and consequences. As well as how the five kid’s cases were treating differently in relation to their scores and to how they behave. Truly, I think that this assessment really meets each area together with the problem behavior, which is why, is so effective in helping help the kids to improve it.

In conclusion, I am convinced of how the Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior as a basis for assessment and intervention programs in children with autism provides a better technique resulting in better outcomes. The relationship between the tester and the kid is better and therefore the tester gets to know better the child and to efficiently work with the deficit on its language development.

Discussion Question

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