Expressive language assessment

An expressive language assessment assesses a child’s spoken language skills. It looks specifically at three areas that are part of spoken language; semantics, morphology and syntax. It is used by the speech and language therapist to establish what expressive skills your child has and what expressive skills your child is struggling with. This assessment can be used on any child who is struggling with expressing their thoughts and feelings in an appropriate manner that can be understood by others.

Speech and language therapists work with children to help them develop their expressive language skills to the best of their ability. Speech and language therapists will work on increasing children’s vocabulary, grammar and sentence skills. Using the information from the assessment our speech and language therapist will work with you and your child to create a unique therapy programme that concentrates on improving your child’s specific areas of need.

• Identification of expressive language delay, disorder and difficulties.
• Information gained from assessment will aid the speech and language therapist in creating an individualised therapy programme.
• Information gained from the assessment can be implemented across communication settings.

An expressive language assessment will help identify what difficulties your child is experiencing, the information from this assessment can form the basis of an individualised therapy programme as well as help provide individualised advice to parents, carers and teachers on how best to develop the child’s skills further.

Find out more…

• What will the expressive language assessment assess?
• Why is an expressive language assessment needed?
• Typical conditions that require an expressive language assessment
• What information will I receive following an expressive language assessment?
• Treatment following an expressive language assessment
• Summary

The speech and language therapist will use the expressive language assessment to establish what difficulties your child is experiencing with spoken language. Difficulties can vary from reduced vocabulary to speaking in sentences that do not make sense. An expressive language assessment will differ in what is assessed and complexity as a child grows older, however the areas assessed will remain consistent. An expressive language assessment will look at:

Semantics

• Number of single words.
• Relationships between words.
• Diversity in vocabulary.
• Inappropriate use of the word.

Morphology

• Use of grammatical markers.
• Use of plurals.
• Use of tense.
• Using the correct word form.
• Use of negatives.

Syntax

• Mean utterance length.
• Range of utterances.
• Types of sentences used.
• Use of correct word order.

Spoken language allows a child to express their thoughts, feelings and opinions. Children who do not have the correct skills or struggle with expressing themselves in a way that can be understood by others are often left unheard, or their opinions and thoughts are not considered, and can often be assumed and spoken for by others. Children with expressive language difficulties may not have a range of vocabulary to express what they are thinking, or they have difficulty using the correct word order in sentences, or they may only speak in single words. Children may speak in long complex sentences but they may carry no meaning or give any information to the listener. These difficulties can impact a child’s communication ability and social interaction. It can also impact their academic learning and development. An expressive language assessment will help establish if the child has:

• Expressive language delay.
• Expressive language disorder.
• Specific language impairment
• Communication difficulties.

Information gained from the assessment will help the speech and language therapist to create an individualised therapy programme that works specifically on improving the expressive language skills your child finds difficult. Speech and language therapy helps to increase your child’s expressive skills in order to help them express their thoughts more effectively as well as helping them to be better understood by others.

Below are some of the common conditions the expressive language assessment is used for:

• Aphasia
• Autism spectrum disorder
• Acquired head / brain injury
• High-functioning autism
• Developmental delay
• Developmental verbal dyspraxia
• Down's syndrome
• Learning disabilities
• Specific language impairment
• Stroke

Our speech and language therapists can help children with a range of difficulties and conditions, including children who have not been diagnosed or identified with a specific condition. The expressive language assessment will help identify the specific difficulties your child is experiencing and the impact of these difficulties on their day to day activities. Our speech and language therapist can provide therapy to help increase your child’s expressive language skills.

After an assessment our speech and language therapist will provide a summary of the assessment and its results. Following an assessment you can request a report that details the findings of the assessment. The report will also contain information about how the difficulties, disorder or impairment is impacting on your child’s communication and daily activity. The report will also contain a treatment plan and recommendations on how to improve your child’s expressive language skills and communication.

Some of the available expressive language and language therapy paediatric treatments are listed below:

• Parent child interaction therapy e.g. Hanen approach.
• Information carrying words e.g. Derbyshire language scheme.
• Naturalistic approaches e.g. modelling target word in natural environment.
• Focussed stimulation.
• Increasing vocabulary.
• Semantic intervention.
• Morphology intervention.
• Syntactic intervention.

We offer a wide range of treatments, if you feel that your child could benefit from a certain therapy programme contact our speech and language therapist for more details. Email office@sltforkids.co.uk or call us on 0330 088 2298.

The expressive language assessment is used to identify difficulties with expressing thoughts and feelings through spoken language. The expressive language assessment is suitable for a range of conditions and can identify problems such as an expressive language delay or disorder.

Our expressive language assessment is used to inform your child’s treatment plan. If you would like more information on our assessments please email office@sltforkids.co.uk or call on 0330 088 2298.