Maria Albarran-Rivero, M.A.
Peninsula Associates, Menlo Park, CA

Introduction

The following Spanish/bilingual assessment measures may be used in order to evaluate the speech and language of Spanish-speaking/bilingual children. These few measures, unfortunately, do not cover all areas of language; however, they do aid in the assessment of specific areas.  Some of the assessment measures listed below were normed on small populations from very specific backgrounds. When interpreting results, this factor should be considered.

In the process of evaluating culturally and linguistically diverse students, even the most experienced evaluator is confronted with variables and problematic factors that affect a student’s performance, test results, and interpretation of results. These variables are identified as cultural/social, academic and linguistic.

• Cultural/social variables can be identified as the examiner’s cultural sensitivity and knowledge of the student’s culture and background. Pragmatic styles may account for differences between examiner and student such as perception of time, eye contact, body language, proximity, turn taking, gender differences and nonverbal communication.
• Academic variables such as cognitive style, student’s strengths and weaknesses, and years of school experience in the United States affect the student’s performance and should be considered when interpreting assessment results and recommending services.
• Linguistic variables are important in defining the student’s capabilities. The examiner should not overlook the language patterns used by the student, language preference, and academic vs. social language. There are normal processes commonly observed in bilingual students such as language loss, code switching, interference and dialectal variations. These processes are crucial information to the examiner. 

It should be noted that the speech-language pathologist should not solely rely on test scores. The following strategies are crucial when evaluating bilingual/bicultural students: increase cultural knowledge and awareness, determine student’s level of acculturation, and determine language preference and language dominance. Other possibilities to obtain a more balanced picture of a bilingual/bicultural child include: language used in testing, use of an interpreter, parent interview, observation, language sample, child’s history, and classroom performance.

Area/Test	Age Range /Grade Level	Purpose	Scores	Publisher
Articulation & Phonology
Assessment of Phonological Processes-Spanish (APP-S) Hodson, 1986	3-0 years and above	Analysis of 10 basic phonological processes and 28 error patterns in single word productions.	Phonological deviancy severity level.	Los Amigos Research Associates Telephone/fax: (619) 286-3162
Medida Espanola de Articulacion (MEDA) Mason, Smith & Hinshaw, 1976	4-0 to 9-0 years	Articulation of vowels, consonants and clusters at the word level.	Descriptive data. Errors can be compared to the norming sample.	San Ysidro School District (619) 428-4476
Spanish Articulation Measures (SAM) Mattes, 1987	3-0 years and above	Analysis of 18 phonological processes in different contexts (repetition, word Production and conversation).	Class deficiencies.	Academic Communication Associates (760) 758-9593
Vocabulary
Multicultural Vocabulary Test (MVT) Trudeau, 1985	3-0 to 12-0 years	Measures expressive vocabulary.	Language age and standard scores.	Los Amigos Research Associates Telephone/fax: (619) 286-3162
Spanish Expressive Vocabulary Test Valvidia, Lopez & Omark, 1992	Preschool to sixth grade	Measures expressive vocabulary.	Age scores and grade level.	Los Amigos Research Associates Telephone/fax: (619) 286-3162
Test de Vocabulario en Imagenes Peabody (TVIP) Dunn, Padilla, Lugo, and Dunn, 1986	2-6  to 17-0 years	Measures receptive vocabulary.	Age scores, standard scores,  percentiles and stanines.	American Guidance Service 1-800-328-2560
Language
Battery of Language Proficiency Woodcock & Munoz, 1996	3-0 to adult	Measures language dominance in receptive and expressive domains.	Language ages, grade equivalency,  and standard scores.	DLM Teaching Resources 1-800-323-9540
Bilingual Syntax Measure (SAM)             Burt, Dulay, Hernandez-Chavez,1980	Kdgn to 2nd grade 3rd to 12 grade	Measures use of grammatical forms	Proficiency level based on number of errors.	The Psychological Corporation 1-800-232-1223
Clinical Evaluation of Language-              Spanish (CELF-3) Semel, Wiig & Secord, 1997	6-0 to 18-0 years	Measures receptive and expressive language skills.	Age levels, language age, standard scores, percentiles and stanines.	The Psychological Corporation 1-800-232-1223
Preschool Language Scale (PLS) Zimmerman, Steiner & Pond, 1992	1-6 to 6-11 years	Measures language comprehension and language production.	Age scores (Note: Normed on small sample.)	The Psychological Corporation 1-800-232-1223
Pruebas del Desarrollo Inicial del Lenguaje (PDIL) Hresko, Reid, & Hammill, 1982	3-0 to 7-11 years	Measures receptive and expressive language in different contexts.	Age levels and percentiles.	PRO-ED (412) 451-3246
Pruebas de Percepcion de la Lengua Espanola, PEOPLE Mares, 1980	6-0 to 9-0 years	Evaluates auditory memory, auditory association, sentence repetition, story comprehension and encoding.	Scaled scores, stanines and standard deviations.	Los Angeles Co. Office of Ed. Division of Special Education (562) 803-8309
Spanish Language Assessment Procedures (SLAP), Mattes, 1995	Kdgn to 3rd grade	Communication Skills Inventory that measures vocabulary, speech production, expressive and receptive language, and pragmatic skills.	Criterion-referenced. Student performance profile.	Academic Communication Associates (760) 758-9593
Spanish Test for Assessing Morphologic Production (STAMP) Nugent, Shipley & Provencio, 1991	5-0 to 10-11 years	Assesses plurals, present progressive, present & past tense, and 6 other Spanish morphological structures.	Means and standard deviations for Spanish-speaking students.	Academic Communication Associates (760) 758-9593

Acknowledgements:

CSHA and Maria Albarran-Rivero, M.A., bilingual speech-language pathologist, acknowledge the efforts of speech-language pathologist Michelle Connelly, M.A. in co-presenting bilingual assessment information with Ms. Albarran-Rivero at a 1997 CSHA District 4 workshop “The Other ADD: Addressing the Dilemma of Diversity” and of bilingual speech-language pathologist Julie Urquidez, M.A. in offering input to Ms. Albarran-Rivero for the above 1999 magazine publication.

SUGGESTED READING LIST:

• Albarran-Rivero, M. & Connelly, M. (1997) “Bilingual Spanish/English speech and language assessment tools.” Round table discussion and handout. CSHA District 4 workshop: The Other ADD: Addressing the Dilemma of Diversity.
• Compton, C. (1990) A guide to 85 tests for special education (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Fearon/Janus.
• Hamayan, E.V. & Damico, J.S. (Eds.) (1991). Limiting bias in the assessment of bilingual students. Austin: Pre-Ed.
• Kayser, H. (1995).  Assessment and intervention resource for Hispanic children. San Diego: Singular Publishing Group.
• Langdon, H. & Cheng, L. (Eds.) (1992). Hispanic children and adults with communication disorders. Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen Publishers.
• Mattes L. J. & Omark, D.R. (1991). Speech and language assessment for the bilingual handicapped (2nd ed.). Oceanside, CA: Academic Communication Associates. Paul, R. (1995). Language disorders from infancy through adolescence: Assessment and intervention.  Portland, OR: Mosby.
• Roseberry-McKibbin, C. (1995) Multicultural students with special language needs: Practical strategies for assessment and intervention. Oceanside, CA: Academic Communication Associates.