Elicitation

We’re finally at the end of the school year! It’s that time of year when I evaluate and consider who really needs to continue speech-language services. When possible, I try to exit students before middle school. But when IS it time to let them go?  Throughout my 20 years as an SLP, I’ve provided services covering the lifespan. One of the best (and probably most rewarding) parts of being a...

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From toddlers with cochlear implants to adults with primary progressive aphasia (and everything in between), SALT has been part of researching people’s spoken language. Oh, and apes’ too! One of my great joys is consulting with researchers from Communication Sciences and Disorders, Psychology, Linguistics, Neuroscience, Ed Psych and more and finding out their research interests to determine how...

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Dear Clinical Colleagues, I hope this finds you relatively safe and sane. Language sample analysis may be a challenge to your limited time and resources. Don’t you wish you COULD fit language sampling into your busy schedule? After all, language sampling is part of the “gold standard” for assessing language in monolingual  and bilingual children. After you collect a language sample, you ca...

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Dressed in my “clinic outfit” in the modest room with the oversized two-way mirror, I’m ready to record. I have been instructed to elicit a conversational language sample from my client. My supervisor is behind that mirror. How hard can it be to get this child to talk with me?  What I thought would be the easiest part of the session turned out to be a lot harder than I expected. What was s...

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When you learned about language sample analysis in grad school, you probably heard that sample length may vary but that you should aim for about fifty utterances. In the “olden days” we were shooting for 15 minutes or 100 utterances; whichever came first. I’ll gloat: our own research was key in establishing the 50 complete, intelligible, and verbal utterance guideline. So, where does that numbe...

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COVID-19 has thrown service providers more curveballs than Sandy Koufax - or for the younger folk - Andy Pettitte. Many of us SLPs had to abruptly (and maybe uncomfortably) shift from face-to-face to telepractice as a service delivery model. Thankfully, today’s technology offers a work-around.  ASHA’s practice portal on telepractice states, “Assessment and therapy procedures and materials ...

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Hey, So in day # “I don’t even know” of this new normal, this is what I’ve noticed! My son fronts /k/ and /g/ initial positions and it’s driving me crazy, even though he just turned two. #relaxslpmom. Online yoga is not my jam because I end up in child’s pose the whole time and slacking like crazy.  I think my dog is tired of us all being home. Nope, still don’t like running.  ...

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One of my favorite features of SALT software is the linking option. Basically, the program lets you link any two samples so that all reports are generated with the data from BOTH language samples presented side by side. Having the data simplified and in one report is a convenient way to present data in IEP meetings or for interpreting data yourself while writing diagnostic or progress reports. ...

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SALT Comprehension Questions Take About 5 Minutes and Will Help You Get More Out of Language Samples A few years back SALT developed comprehension questions for each of the story retell language sample elicitations. Can I just say that I love these add-on questions! They are based on the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy(1) with a framework of questions in a hierarchy going from easy to more complex hi...

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May 26 - 31: Communication Disorders in Adults A Family Story My perfectly healthy, happy, and extremely social mother of 85 years recently hurt her knee. The pain became excruciating and the family was called into action for doctor appointments and subsequent in-home care. In order to heal, she needed to stay off her feet and was limited to sitting in chairs and bed rest. During her recovery ...

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