Speech-Language Pathology Assessment and Clinical Writing

Vocabulary and key concepts from lecture notes covering SLP assessment methods, reliability/validity definitions, oral mechanism exams, and principles of clinical writing.

Dynamic assessment

Also known as ’stimulability’ testing, this method of assessment evaluates a client's ability to produce a skill with support or cues.

Sensitivity

The ability of a screening tool to correctly identify those individuals who are at risk.

Specificity

The ability of a screening tool to exclude those individuals who are not at risk.

True Positive

A screening result that correctly identifies someone as being at risk.

False Positive

A screening result that incorrectly identifies someone as being at risk.

True Negative

A screening result that correctly identifies someone as not being at risk.

False Negative

A screening result that incorrectly identifies someone as not being at risk.

Face validity

The extent to which a test appears to test what it aims to test.

Construct validity

The extent to which a test relates to underlying theoretical concepts.

Concurrent validity

The extent to which a test relates to an existing similar measure.

Predictive validity

The extent to which a test predicts later performance on a related criterion.

Split-half method

A measure of internal reliability that assesses the extent to which all parts of the test contribute equally to what is being measured.

Test re-test

A measure of external reliability that evaluates the stability of a test over time.

Inter-rater reliability

The degree to which different raters give consistent estimates of the same behavior.

Ecological Validity

The power of a measure to accurately predict or represent the individual’s behavior in everyday life.

MLU

Mean Length of Utterance, a standardized measure used in speech and language sampling.

CIUs

Correct Information Units, a standardized measure used to analyze language informativeness and efficiency.

Sustained phonation

A standardized speech task where a client says ‘ahhh’ for as long as possible; a typical adult should last at least $20$\text{ seconds}.

AMRs

Alternating Motion Rates; the repetition of speech sounds in isolation.

SMRs

Sequential Motion Rates; the repetition of a sequence of speech sounds such as /p^t^k^/ or ‘buttercup’.

CN V (Trigeminal)

The cranial nerve responsible for opening and closing the mouth and mastication (chewing).

CN VII (Facial)

The cranial nerve responsible for facial expression and maintaining a lip seal for containment of food, liquid, and saliva.

CN X (Vagus)

The cranial nerve responsible for phonation (voice), resonance (soft palate elevation), and swallowing.

CN XII (Hypoglossal)

The cranial nerve responsible for tongue movement during speech (articulation), mastication, and swallowing.

WFLs

An abbreviation for ‘Within Functional Limits,’ used to describe the function of structures during an Oral Mechanism Exam.

SOAP Note

A clinical session note organized into Subjective (S), Objective (O), Assessment (A), and Plan (P) sections.

Person-first language

A principle of clinical writing that prioritizes the individual over their diagnosis, such as saying ‘person who stutters’ instead of ‘stutterer.’