Purpose: Designed to assess language-based skills of social interpretation and interaction with friends, the skills found to be most predictive of social language development. You will gain insight into your student's social understanding and social language competency.
Ages: 6 to 11 years
Grades: 1-6
Administration Time: 45 minutes
DescriptionMany children perform well on traditional language tests, yet their social language skills are inadequate. This test will substantiate the influence of your students' language disorders on their social disorders and qualify them for therapy.
The test assesses students' language-based responses to portrayed, peer-to-peer situations which is unlike other tests which rely on observation forms.
The test assesses the language required to appropriately infer and express what another person is thinking or feeling within a social context, to make multiple interpretations, take mutual perspectives, and negotiate with and support their peers.
Test tasks reflect the developmental refinement of social language comprehension and expression and differentiate typically-developing children from those with language learning disorders or autism.
SubtestsSubtests consist of question-answering tasks, interpretations of photographed scenes, and verbal explanations.
Subtest A: Making Inferences: The student infers what someone in a picture is thinking. There are two questions per item. The first question asks the student to pretend he is the person in the photo and to make an inference about what the person would be thinking. This question examines the student's ability to use the information from facial features, body language, and context to respond. The second question asks the student to say what information from the photo he used to make the inference.
Subtest B: Interpersonal Negotiations: The student pretends he is in conflict with a peer. There are three tasks. The student must identify the problem, propose an appropriate resolution, and explain why that resolution is mutually satisfactory.
Subtest C: Multiple Interpretations: The student shows flexible thinking by giving two different, plausible interpretations of the same photo.
Subtest D: Supporting Peers: The student pretends he is in a situation with a peer. Tae student tells what to say in reaction to the friend's situation. The degree of support given to the friend, not the truthfulness of the response is examined in this subtest.
Scoring/Types of ScoresSpecific scoring guidelines for each test item are provided in detail in the Scoring Standards & Example Responses Book. Acceptable and unacceptable responses are also referenced on the test form.
Scoring for subtests A and C are 1 or 0 for correct/incorrect responses. For subtests B, 3,2,1 or 0 scores are assigned. For subtest D, a score of 4, 3, 2, 1, or 0 are assigned to each response, based on relevancy and quality.
- The Criteria for full credit/correct responses are:
- Subtest A: Making Inferences - A direct quote in the first person, that is relevant to the person's situation plus a specific, relevant clue from the picture. The first person is required to receive a score of 1 regardless of the content of the response.
- Subtest B: Interpersonal Negotiation - The student must state the problem from a mutual perspective, and offer a solution that refers to maintaining the friendship to receive a score of 3.
- Subtest C: Multiple Interpretations - A correct response is two different and plausible interpretations of the same photo.
- Subtest D: Supporting Peers - A correct response that shows strong support said out of politeness or kindness receives a score of 4.
- Raw scores convert to:
- Age Equivalents
- Percentile Ranks
- Standard Scores
StandardizationTwo studies were conducted on the Social Language Development Test Elementary: the item pool and standarization studies. The item pool consisted of 390 subjects. The test was standardized on 1,104 subjects that represented the latest National Census for race, gender, age and educational placement. In addition, 352 subjects with language learning disorders and autism spectrum disorders were used in the validity studies.
Author: Linda Bowers, MA,SLP; Rosemary Huisingh, MA, SLP; Carolyn LoGiudice, MA, CCC-SLP
