Receptive-Expressive

Emergent Language
Scale (REELS)

PRESENTER;
BIFIN
 REELS
Given By
Kenneth R. Bzoch & Richard League

To assess the receptive and expressive language age of the child

Reels can be used 0-3 years of age and extended version of reels can be used
till 7 years
 The Need for Identifying speech and language
problem in Infancy
 Emerging speech skills normally require the recalled
memory of the auditory sound patterns of speaking
adults
 There are, however, apparent differences in ability
levels achieved by individual children before 3 years
of age.
 It is important to identify these differences or delays.
As well as there primary apparent causes, because
they serve as the basis for planned early stimulation
and / or specific intervention.
 Delayed development found during the first 3 years
can be more readily related to etiology
 Cont..
 Remedial language centered training for developmentally
delayed children can better prepared them for formal
education.
 However, accumulating evidence suggests primary language /
learning disabilities for many at – risk children can be
prevented or better managed when we reach these children
before 3 years of age (Bailey & Wolery,1984)
 Description of the REELS-2

The REELS-2 Model

The 3 functional language systems are termed
• Receptive language
• Expressive language
• Inner language
These systems describe the types of learning that must occur during infancy
The REELS -2 directly addresses the first two of these systems
 Receptive Language
 It refers to the unified activity of all the sensory – neural associations and
auditory-perceptual processes that are involved in the decoding and
understanding of the intended meaning of oral languages
 Expressive Language
 It refer to all of the underlying sensory-neural processes and also to the
motor-neural skills of the Breathing,Phonation,Resonance, and Articulation
mechanisms of the body that are involved in communicating with others
through the mediation of spoken symbolic languages
 Inner Language
 It refer to the recalled relationship between word concepts previously
learned and the mental-auditory sequences recallable to think about
Observations,Questions,or Experiential situations at hand
 Uses of REELS-2
 The primary uses of the REELS-2 are provide descriptions of the present
developmental status of young children to assist with intervention
goals,and to serve as a screening device for medically and environmentally
at-risk populations. It may also be used in clinical research and as a tool in
multidisciplinary settings to contribute to differential diagnosis of
environmental vs organic etiology
 The Interviewer
 Te REELS-2 can be administrated by any one who is reasonably competent
in the administration of assessment devices in Language, Education,
Psychology, or a related discipline. Interviewers should be able to put
informants at ease and should be knowledgeable about the REELS-2 scales
they should also be informed enough to elicit the information needed if the
informant response in an ambiguous
 Interviewers should be thoroughly familiar with the REELS-2 items,
Practicing their questioning for every item orally before administering the
REELS-2 scales
 The scoring systems
 The REELS-2 scales contain three items for each age interval. Depending
on what the informant indicate, each of the three items is assigned a score
of ;
 Plus (+) (this is typical behavior)
 Minus (-) (this behavior has never been observed); or
 Plus-Minus (+ -) (this behavior only emerging or only partly exhibited)
A Plus-Minus score (+-) is to be considered a plus (+) under 2 conditions
(a) In any age interval where the other two items are scored plus

(+), and more importantly

(b) In any age interval where one item is scored plus (+) and

another item is scored minus (-), provided that the next higher
interval is passed.
 Administration an scoring
 The chronological age establishes the initial interview items as those in the
interval below the chronological age on receptive scale. Rather than
beginning the interview by asking each questions in a verbatim manner,
the interviewer should explain that the first part of the conversation will
focus on what the child appears to understand when spoken to or when
near someone who is taking in the environment (receptive language). Only
later will the interview focus on how the child vocalizes or now speaks
(expressive language)
THANK YOU