- Testing time: 45 minutes
- Norm-referenced: standard scores, age equivalents, percentile ranks
- Social Language Development Test Adolescent Kit: Examiner's manual, scoring standards and example responses book, picture stimuli book, audio CD, 20 test forms. Boxed. (2010)
- Qualification Level: B
Identify atypical social language behaviors in your adolescent students and determine how they compare to their typically developing peers.
The Social Language Development Test Adolescent is a standardized test of social language skills that focuses on social interpretation and interaction with peers. Tasks require students to take someone's perspective, make correct inferences, solve problems with peers, interpret social language, and understand idioms, irony, and sarcasm. SLDTA differentiates students with language disorders or autism spectrum disorders from students developing language normally.
The SLDT A assesses students' language-based responses to portrayed, peer-to-peer situations. The test differentiates typically developing adolescents from those with language learning disorders or autism. There are five subtests with 12 items each. Test stimuli include photographs, scenarios presented verbally by the examiner, and audio recordings on a CD.
- Subtest A: Making Inferences
Student takes the perspective of someone in a photograph and, based on the context clues (facial expression, gesture, posture), tells what the person is thinking as a direct quote from the character. The comment must relate to the character's age, any context clues, and the emotional intensity of the character's expression and posture. The second question asks the student to identify the relevant visual clues suggesting the character's thought.
- Subtest B: Interpreting Social Language
Examines the student's social metalinguistic skills with questions designed to tap a variety of skills that reflect how people communicate:
- demonstrate an action and tell an appropriate reason or use for that action
- give an example or definition
- interpret an idiom
- Subtest C: Problem Solving (Stating and Justifying Solutions)
The student imagines being in a problem situation with a friend and is asked to propose an appropriate, logical solution, then justifies why that solution would be a good one.
- Subtest D: Social Interaction
The student assumes the perspective of a main character in a situation with a peer, consider the perspective of the peer, and make a comment or do something to support the peer.
- Subtest E: Interpreting Ironic Statements
The student listens to a situation on an audio CD and shows an understanding of the dialogue, including idioms, and interprets its irony and sarcasm. The student must understand the intention of the speaker and use the context clues from the story to explain irony and sarcasm.
The test-retest coefficient is .82 for the total test, the SEM is 4.66 for the total test and the KR20 coefficient is .92. Inter-Rater reliability is 85% for the total test. Given the uniqueness of the test, the clinical population, and scoring criteria, the reliability is highly satisfactory.
Only trained professionals familiar with language disorders (e.g., speech-language pathologist, psychologist) should administer this assessment, as it requires careful interpretation of student responses.