The Arizona Articulation and Phonology Scale, Fourth Revision (ARIZONA-4) measures speech intelligibility, articulatory impairment, and phonological impairment in one quick, easy to use assessment.
Ages: 18 months to 21 years Testing Time: 5–20 minutes Format: The individual names, repeats, or reads stimulus content and the examiner notes articulatory and phonological errors Qualification Level B
The fourth revision of this widely used assessment retains the strengths of its predecessors and adds features that enhance its effectiveness in identifying individuals who have speech sound disorders. New norms, refined measurement properties, and the addition of connected-speech and phonology tests help clinicians identify individuals who may benefit from speech sound services. Supplemental qualitative tasks facilitate deeper interpretation of the scores and help clinicians develop treatment plans that are targeted to the individual’s needs.
Applications and Uses The Arizona-4 can be used by speech and language professionals in a variety of settings, including schools, clinics, hospitals, private practices, and intervention programs. Its applications include:
Understanding and describing an individual’s level of articulatory ability and overall speech intelligibility in both single-word and connected speech
Comparing single-word and connected-speech articulatory abilities
Determining the extent to which phonological impairment may contribute to an individual’s articulatory deficits, and describing the specific types of phonological error patterns that are displayed
Facilitating early identification of speech-sound development concerns and determining whether an individual may benefit from treatment services
Identifying and prioritizing speech targets for individualized intervention through analysis of the examinee’s specific articulatory/phonological deficits and relative strengths, including the production of consonants, consonant blends, vowels, and vocalic /r/
Monitoring improvement in an individual’s speech sound production over time
Evaluating the degree of consistency in an individual’s production of misarticulated sounds, the impact of speech sound deficits in continuous language and everyday speech, and the need for further language assessment or intervention
What It Measures The Arizona-4 scores help clinicians identify individuals who are in need of speech sound services and develop treatment plans for them. The primary score is the easy-to-understand Word or Sentence Articulation Total Score, which has a direct and useful interpretation. Because the Total Scores are based on research that links them to the actual rate of speech sound occurrence in American speech, they express a real sense of how often misarticulated sounds are likely to occur in the examinee’s everyday speech and what impact those misarticulations are likely to have on overall speech intelligibility. The Word–Sentence Articulation Critical Difference Score provides further information about clinically meaningful differences between articulation in single-word versus connected-speech contexts.
In addition, standard scores are provided for Word Articulation, Sentence Articulation, and Phonology. Standard scores allow comparison of the examinee’s performance to that of a typically developing peer group based on age (and gender, at the younger ages). Severity ranges, confidence intervals, percentile ranks, and test-age equivalent scores further aid clinical interpretation. The Arizona-4 scores include descriptive language that is easily understood by parents and other nonprofessionals.
Expanded guidelines for interpretation cover topics such as extreme scores, item-level analysis, percentage of occurrence of phonological error patterns, and use of the Arizona-4 to measure change over time. Additional qualitative information is available through a variety of supplemental, nonstandardized tasks that help you plan effective treatment for the individual.
The Arizona-4 offers the following scores:
Total Scores and associated Speech Intelligibility Interpretation Values
Standard Scores and associated Severity Ranges for level of articulatory and phonological impairment
Percentage of Occurrence for phonological error patterns
Percentage of Speech Improvement score for retesting
The Arizona-4 was standardized on a nationally representative sample of 3,192 children, adolescents, and young adults, aged 1 year, 6 months through 21 years, 11 months. This sample was stratified to match U.S. Census data with respect to gender, race/ethnicity, parents’ educational level, and geographic region. A clinical validation sample was also collected, consisting of 50 individuals who had a diagnosis of a speech sound disorder (articulation and/or phonological disorder) and were receiving treatment services.
