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Part 1 Formal assessment data

TROG-2

What does this assess? TROG-2 is a standardised assessment looking to test a

child’s receptive language in multiple grammatical aspects
e.g prepositions or passive structures. It’s an easy to use
test of which increases in difficulty, and is stopped if 5
consecutive blocks are failed. This test not only shows us a
child’s grammatical comprehension in comparison to others
of the same age, but also highlights areas of difficulty.
Raw Score - 6 blocks passed Percentile rank: 3%
Marvin is just within 1 standard deviation from the mean.
(well below average at his age level)

What does this suggest in terms of Marvin’s Marvin’s results in the TROG-2 test scored him a percentile
language and why? rank of 3% after having passed 6 blocks. His percentile rank
is just within 1 standard deviation below the mean, a score
well below the typical range for his age. This tells us Marvin
has some receptive grammatical limitations. This result
indicates that further analysis is necessary into where
Marvin’s particular areas of difficulty are. A next step could
be to compare his performance on the TROG-2 test with a
different assessment focusing on expressive grammar to see
if there are similarities in ability or if one’s stronger than the
other.

CELF – Clinical evaluation of language fundamentals. CELF rather than being a single assessment is rather a
“comprehensive assessment battery” including a range of subtests each assessing a specific skill around expressive and
receptive language skills. In each test the scores are standardised as scaled scores ( 10 as the mean and 3 as the standard
deviation.)

CELF 4 UK expressive vocabulary

What does this assess? In the expressive vocabulary subtest, it is assessing a child’s
knowledge/ability of vocabulary at their age appropriate
stage. The child is asked to identify the names of objects,
people or actions in photos ( fundamentally asking the child
to say what a picture is or what a picture represents.), and
can get a score of either 2, 1 or 0 depending on how
accurate their answer is in relation to the image displayed,
though for some of the answers there’s no 1 point score just
2 or 0.
Raw Score -19 Scaled score: 5
Within typical range – 10-7
1 SD below – 6-4
2 SD below – 3-1

What does this suggest in terms of Marvin’s Marvin’s results in the expressive vocabulary subtest show
language and why? us that Marvin has a weakness in his knowledge of age
appropriate vocabulary. In the expressive vocabulary
subtest Marvin’s scaled score was 5, his score falls between
1 standard deviation below and 2 standard deviations
below the mean. In terms of Marvin’s language there is a
concern of the rate that it’s developing, as he is within
13.59% lowest scoring for his age.
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CELF 4 UK concepts and following directions

What does this assess? In the CELF 4 concepts and following directions subtest,
children need to interpret spoken directions, and the more
questions they do, the higher the length and complexity of
the questions become. They are being assessed on different
concepts such as inclusion/exclusion, location, sequence etc.
And this can be observed in vocabulary e.g next to,
between, same time, all. Children are also challenged to
listen and remember order of mention. The child would look
at a picture, listen to direction from the examiner and
point/identify whatever they believe they’ve been asked to.
Raw Score – 24 Scaled score: 6
Within typical range – 10-7
1 SD below – 6-4
2 SD below – 3-1

What does this suggest in terms of Marvin’s
language and why?
CELF 4 UK word structure ability
Marvin’s results in the Concepts and following direction
subtest show us that his ability of interpreting, recalling and
producing oral commands is below the average for his age.
This is shown in his scaled score, where he scored 1
standard deviation below the mean, putting him just below
the typical range. Marvin’s results show us that he has a
weakness in interpreting spoken directions, and that further
analysis or action needs to be taken. A good start would be
to compare his test scores to others within the CELF 4
assessments to see if this is an individual area of difficulty or
other results correlate.

What does this assess? The CELF 4 word structure, is a subtest analysing children’s
morphology, to achieve this children need to show
inflections, derivations and comparisons. The subtest
is also assessing how children use pronouns when referring
to objects and people. So within the subtest the child is
made to complete a sentence, an examiner will speak part
of a sentence to a child with a bit missing, of which the child
has to fill in ( the goal being for the answer to correlate with
the target structure).
Raw Score - 3 Scaled score : 1
Within typical range – 10-7
1 SD below – 6-4
2 SD below – 3-1

What does this suggest in terms of Marvin’s In the CELF 4 word structure subtest, Marvin produced a
language and why? scaled score of 1. This score shows us that Marvin has a
significant difficulty in his use of morphology, as he scored 3
standard deviations below the mean. This scaled score
shows us that Marvin is well below the typical range for
word structure because he scores exactly 3 standard
deviations below the mean, placing him in the bottom
0.13% for his age. In terms of Marvin’s language this shows
us that he has a substantial difficulty when it comes to his
morphology, and showing inflections, derivations or
comparisons. Further analysis and SLT therapy is essential
here.
Renfrew Action Picture Test (4th Edition)
What does this assess? The RAFT is a standardised assessment focusing on two
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Information Raw Score – 26
Grammar Raw score – 8
What does this suggest in terms of Marvin’s
language and why?
PART 2 - Template allowance (110) Additional word count (496)
Individual profile: Marvin
Communication strengths (CS)
-Marvin listens and attends well for short periods (5
minutes) on a 1:1 basis. (From – SLT informal
observations/reported information)
-He responds well to adult prompts. (From – SLT informal
observations/reported information)
-Marvin shows no difficulties with oro-motor tasks and his
phonology is age appropriate. (From – SLT informal
observations/reported information)
components in expressive language – semantics and
grammar. The test tells us what level a child’s expressive
ability is at in terms of content/ semantics and grammar.
You can also compare the strengths or difficulties they have
in their performance on information and grammar, and see
whether they excel or struggle in one more than the other.
Means and standard deviations for his age:
Information: Mean: 34 SD: 4.62
Within typical range – 29.38
1 SD below – 24.76
Grammar: Mean: 28 SD: 4.08
Within typical range – 23.92
1 SD below – 19.84
2 SD below – 15.76
3 SD below – 11.68
4 SD below – 7.6
Marvin’s results in the RAFT test show he has a prominent
weakness in the grammar component of his expressive
ability. This is because Marvin’s raw score for grammar was
just within 4 standard deviations below the mean, putting
him in the bottom 0.13% for his age. This showing us that
he is very much below the typical range in expressive
language. In terms of Marvin’s information (semantics)
ability within in the RAFT test his raw score shows that he
his below the typical range in expressive language because
his score was 1 standard deviation below the mean.
Although in comparison to Marvin’s results in the grammar
test it is not as significantly low it is still something to focus
on. This result would indicate to us that further analysis of
semantics and grammar is needed for Marvin, and also
analysis of his responses to see more specifically what he’s
having real difficulty with.
Communication difficulties (CD)
-Marvin finds it difficult to maintain attention in small
groups and whole class activities. (From – SLT informal
observations/reported information)
-TROG-2. Marvin showed receptive grammatical
limitations, scoring just within 2 SD below the mean.
(From – Formal assessments)
-CELF-4. In expressive vocabulary Marvin showed
weakness in knowledge of age appropriate vocabulary,
scoring inbetween 1 and 2 SD below the mean. (From –
Formal assessments)
-CELF-4. In concepts and following direction, Marvin’s
ability of interpreting recalling and producing oral
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commands is below average, scoring 1 SD below the

mean just outside the typical range. (From – Formal
assessments)
-CELF-4. In word structure Marvin showed significant
difficulty in use of morphology, scoring 3SD below the
mean. (From – Formal assessments)
-RAPT 4th In information, Marvin’s semantics ability was
below the typical range, scoring 1 SD below the mean.
(From – Formal assessments)
-RAPT 4th In grammar, Marvin has a prominent weakness,
scoring just within 4 SD below the mean.
-Marvin’s language sample implicates communication
difficulties as he was only shown using verbs and nouns
e.g “sandcastle” “Ice-cream”. He’s not seen showing much
awareness to other word categories.

Impact on activity
-Marvin finds academic learning difficult at the moment although he enjoys everything that is creative or physical. (From
- Case study, academic information) THIS INFORMATION ALSO INTERLINKS AS A PERSONAL FACTOR, MARVIN ENJOYING
“EVERYTHING THAT IS CREATIVE OR PHYSICAL.”
-Marvin likes to be close to adults during classroom activities and requests adult support with most tasks in the
classroom and activities in the playground. (From – SLT informal observations/reported information) THIS
INFORMATION ALSO INTERLINKS WITH IMPACT ON PARTICIPATION, THAT BEING “TASKS IN THE CLASSROOM AND
ACTIVITIES IN THE PLAYGROUND.”

Impact on participation
-Marvin can sometimes seem anxious about new situations and makes limited eye contact with adults and peers. (From-
SLT informal observations/reported information) THIS INFORMATION ALSO INTERLINKS AS A COMMUNICATION
WEAKNESS, MARVIN MAKING “LIMITED EYE CONTACT WITH ADULTS AND PEERS.”

Environmental factors (EF +/-) Personal factors (PF +/-)

-Marvin’s family have only recently moved into the area.
(From - Case study, family circumstances)
-Marvin has recently moved to the school and has yet to
establish relationships with his peers. (From - Case study,
social information)
-Marvin attends a mainstream school. (From - Case study)
-Marvin lives with his dad. He has 3 older brothers and a
younger sister, none of whom have any speech, language
or communication needs. (From - Case study, family
circumstances)
-Marvin really enjoys sport. (From - Case study, social
information)
- Dad is very supportive & feels like Marvin’s new school
and the family move will be a ‘new start’. (From - Case
study, social information)

Additional information – what else would you like to find out about?
-I would like to find out more about Marvin’s communication strengths, areas he excels at to have a better information
to compare between them and his communication difficulties.
- I would also like to know in terms of social information, about what Marvin’s relationship with other peers was like in
his old school, to determine whether him being yet to establish relationships is due to moving school or more of a
communication weakness.
- I would also like more details in relation to Marvin’s environmental factors. For example whether the family’s house
move was a significant change in area, or a new house in the same area.

Part 3: Marvin’s communication strengths and difficulties and potential impacts (word count
-1314)
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Introduction :

Marvin is a boy aged 6 years and 7 months old, and here I’ll be analysing what his communication strengths and
weaknesses are, and how they could have a potential impact on him. I’m doing this using information from his case
study, ICF and results from his formal assessment data, relating to relevant literature. We are told that Marvin was late
to talk, and that recently his speech, language and communication has been identified as a Developmental Language
Disorder (DLD). DLD is condition whereby a child shows difficulty with using or understanding language, resulting
in problems that interfere with everyday communication and the child’s education. When having a DLD,
children may have problems with components of language acquisition such as verbal comprehension, using utterances,
vocabulary and grammar, literacy skills or using language socially ( Afastic, 2016). Signs of DLD range depending on
the child’s age, and every child will show different capabilities and disabilities. For children aged 3-5 years, it is
common to see difficulty in areas of communication like understanding what is being said, asking questions, following
directions or finding words to express thoughts. Children aged 6-11 years (Marvin’s age bracket) are known to show
signs of DLD when having difficulty with following multi-step directions, producing grammatical utterances, reading,
writing, spelling or math, and limited use of complex sentences. (Hogan, 2021)

Form:

Marvin’s morphology abilities were analysed in the CELF 4 word structure subtest, looking at his capability of
showing inflections, derivations and comparisons, as well as using pronouns when referring to objects or people. The
results showed that Marvin has great difficulty in terms of morphology, scoring three standard deviations below the
mean, placing him in the bottom 0.13% in terms of word structure ability for his age. For children with DLD
struggling with their morphological impairment, this has a big impact on their receptive language abilities. Due to this
it’s common to see difficulty with understanding past/present/future tenses in children with DLD, as well as
comprehension – “understanding of word endings and changes in word forms to signal different meanings” (Afastic,
2016). Marvin having morphology difficulties on receptive language will have a big impact on him personally and
socially, as his difficulty of understanding different sentence complexities can “come across as the child not
listening/being lazy… and can impact the child’s ability to take part in certain activities in school therefore impacting
their academic development.” (SLT for Kids, 2021). In relation to the ICF, this CELF word structure subtest would
classify as a communication difficulty, but also have an impact on participation for Marvin.

In the SLT informal observations/ reported information we learnt that Marvin showed no difficulties with oro-motor
tasks and his phonology is age appropriate. When examining a child’s phonological ability we’re looking at sound
production linking to meaning of words. Although there’s no formal assessment data for Marvin’s phonological
ability, typically a Speech and Language Therapist (SALT) would use phonetic transcription to write down a child’s
speech. (Afastic, 2016 ) talks about this in more detail, stating how “typically they will ask a child to name a set of
pictures in order to hear single words and spoken sentences. They will write this down using the International
Phonetic Alphabet.” And furtherly they’ll complete a speech systems examination looking at the child’s articulators
moving. For children with DLD struggling with their phonological ability, a common communicative impact they
have is failure to understand which sounds are important for signalling meaning in language. This therefore has an
impact on their vocabulary and consequently their grammatical development. The (ACAMH, 2021 ) talks further
about issues for children with DLD phonologically, commenting on how “Children with phonological deficits may fail
to distinguish between certain speech sounds such as ‘t’ and ‘k’…. Persistent phonological deficits may reduce
intelligibility of speech and difficulties identifying and manipulating speech sounds within words is associated with
difficulties learning to read.” Marvin’s phonological awareness will have a great impact on his ability when learning
to read and write, as well as his development with spelling. Another beneficial impact caused by Marvin’s
phonological awareness is “helping develop general thinking skills such as probabilistic reasoning and reasoning by
analogy” (Literacy Project, 2017). Relating is information to the ICF, Marvin’s phonological ability would be
categorized as a communication strength as it has good influence with building a child’s patience and concentration,
improving vocabulary and language, and also making the process of reading easier.

Content:
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When analysing a child’s language and communication ability in terms of content, we look at their semantic capability
“Semantics refers to children’s ability to understand the meaning of words and how words are related to one another.”
(ACAMH, 2021). Marvin’s semantic abilities were measured using the RAFT 4 th Edition, a standardised assessment
focusing on the semantic component in expressive language. Marvin’s information raw score of 26 in the test tells us
that he’s below the typical range for his age as his score was one standard deviation below the mean. For children with
DLD who have issues with semantics, this will cause them significant difficulty with learning new words “Therefore
having limited vocabulary, and the words they do know may not have the same depth of understanding seen in
children with typical language development.” (ACAMH, 2021) Marvin’s low semantic ability in expressive language
could have an impact on his social/conversational skills, as commonly it results in difficulty with understanding
instructions and conversations, especially when “using words that have a double meaning, as they may only know one
meaning or find it difficult to understand that some words have more than one meaning.” (SLT for Kids, 2021 ).
Linking this to the ICF, Marvin’s results in the RAFT information test would be categorised as a communication
difficulty – due to the resulting issues with understanding instructions and conversations, and also impact on
participation - as their lack of understanding in comparison to others can lead to difficulty with talking to and
socialising with peers.

Use:

In terms of use we look at pragmatics and discourse, how language and communication are used especially for
interaction, and language that is beyond the boundaries of isolated sentences. Marvin was not tested specifically in
pragmatics, as explained by (Paul, Norbury and Gosse, 2018 p.323) “A test of pragmatics is almost a contradiction in
terms. Because pragmatics involves the use of language for real communication, we need to assess it in a more
naturalistic context.” Although the CELF 4 concepts and following directions subtest does relate to pragmatic
features. The subtest involves children interpreting spoken directions, being assessed on concepts such as
inclusion/exclusion, location or sequence. Marvin’s results from this showed that his ability of interpreting, recalling
and producing oral commands (important skills for interaction with pragmatics) were below the average for his age,
scoring one standard deviation below the mean, just below the typical range. For children with DLD struggling with a
pragmatic disorder, they are likely to have communicative issues, like difficulty in judging what listeners want/need to
know, are less likely to be grammatically complete, use fewer indirect forms, and not always being able to provide a
conversationally obligated response, are just a few examples. The division of Speech-Language Pathology (2015, p.1)
talks more about how children with a pragmatic disorder “ may demonstrate a general language delay, they may have
trouble understanding the meaning of what others are saying. They may also have difficulty using language
appropriately to get their needs met and to interact with others.” Marvin’s lower ability with concepts and following
direction will have an impact on him, as the resulting poor turn taking abilities, maintaining topic of conversation and
ability to recover from broken down conversation, will cause communicative difficulty – especially in terms of
socialising. This relates to the ICF as this would be categorized as communication difficulty, as well as having an
impact on arguably both his activity and participation.

References:
 Afastic (2016) Developmental language disorder (previously Specific language impairment). Available at :
file:///C:/Users/yvett/Downloads/Glossary_Sheet_1_-_Developmental_language_disorder_-
_previously_SLI_11%20(4).pdf  (Accessed: 18/04/2021)
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 Afastic (2016) Language disorder: Receptive language disorder. Available

at : file:///C:/Users/yvett/Downloads/Glossary_Sheet_22_-_Language_impairment_-
_Receptive_4%20(2).pdf (Accessed: 10/04/2021)
 Afastic (2016) Speech disorder: articulation and phonological disorders. Available
at : file:///C:/Users/yvett/Downloads/Glossary_Sheet_14_-_Speech_disorders_2016_4%20(2).pdf (Accessed:
14/04/2021)
 Hogan, T. DLD and Me (2008-2021) Signs of DLD Across the Lifespan. Available
at: https://dldandme.org/signs-of-dld/ (Accessed: 18/04/2021)
 Literacy Project (2017) 10 Key benefits of phonetics education with children. Available
at: https://literacyproj.org/2019/01/29/10-key-benefits-of-phonics-education-with-children/ (Accessed:
14/04/2021)
 Paul, R. Norbury, C. and Gosse, C. (2018) Language Disorders from Infancy through Adolescence. St Louis,
Missouri: Elsevier. Fifth Edition.
 SLT for Kids (2021) Grammar (syntax and morphology). Available
at: https://sltforkids.co.uk/speech-clinic/speech-language-and-communication-problems-we-help/receptive-
language-difficulties/grammar-syntax-
 SLT for Kids (2021) Semantic skills. Available at: https://sltforkids.co.uk/speech-clinic/speech-language-and-
communication-problems-we-help/receptive-language-difficulties/grammar-syntax-
 morphology/#:~:text=Difficulties%20with%20morphology%20and%20syntax,understand%20plural%20forms
%20of%20words.&text=Children%20may%20struggle%20to%20extract%20meaning%20from%20complex
%20sentences. (Accessed: 10/04/2021)
 Speech - Language Pathology (2015) Pragmatic Language. Available
at: file:///C:/Users/yvett/Downloads/information-language-PDF-pragmatic-lan-6.pdf (Accessed: 13/04/2021)
 The Association for Child and Adolescence Mental Health (2021) Developmental Language Disorder.
Available at : https://www.acamh.org/topic/developmental-language-disorder/ (Accessed: 13/04/2021 ).