School-Age Morphosyntactic Battery

SCHOOL-AGE MORPHOSYNTACTIC BATTERY

Lexical Judgement

Shula Chiat, Jo Piper, & Penny Roy

Department of Language and Communication Science

CityUniversity

Northampton Square

London EC1V 0HB

e-mail:

Phone: 020-7040-8238

Acknowledgement

This test is based on a lexical decision task developed by Alison Constable and reported in:

Constable, A., Stackhouse, J., & Wells, B.(1997). Developmental-word finding difficulties and phonological processing: The case of the missing handcuffs. Applied Psycholinguistics 18, 507-36.

Lexical Judgement A

SLIDE 1 – click to make Blob appear:

This is Blob.

Blob is going to say some words.

Sometimes Blob says the word right, but sometimes she gets muddled up and says a made-up word.

Listen carefully to Blob’s words. You can help her by telling her when she says a word right and when she gets it wrong.

SLIDE 2

If she says a word right, press this green button with the tick(press button)

SLIDE 3

If she gets it wrong and says a made-up word, press this red button with the cross(press button)

SLIDE 4

So remember, Blob is going to say some words and you have to tell her if she says it right(press green button) or if she says a made-up word(press red button). Listen really carefully because she only says each word once.

Do you understand what you have to do? (Recap. instructions if necessary)

SLIDE 5 – teaching item 1

Note: On teaching items 1 and 2, if the child asks to hear the stimulus for a second time, allow them to do so. But explain – ‘I can let you hear it again because we are just practising, but you should try to listen carefully to Blob the first time she says her word’.

Ok, let’s practice. When you are ready, touch Blob to hear her word.

Did Blob get it right or did she say a made-up word?

Allow child to indicate their choice and give feedback as appropriate:

• If the child gets it right, confirm their choice eg ‘that’s right, Blob said alligator. She said it right.
• If they get it wrong, say ‘that’s a good try’ and explain/discuss the right answer is eg ‘Blob said alligator. That’s a real word, so you need to press the green button to show her she got it right.

SLIDE 6 – teaching item 2

Let’s try another one. When you are ready, touch Blob to hear her word.

Did Blob get it right or did she say a made-up word?

Allow child to indicate their choice and give feedback as appropriate:

• If the child gets it right, confirm their choice eg ‘that’s right, Blob said tefelone. That’s not a real word. She made a mistake/she said a made-up word’
• If they get it wrong, say ‘that’s a good try’ and explain/discuss the right answer is eg ‘Blob said tefelone. That’s not a real word. She said a made-up word so you need to press the red button to show her she made a mistake’

Note: When discussing non-words with the child, do not at any point make reference to the real word from which they are derived eg ‘Blob said tefelone, she meant to say telephone’.

Good. Are you ready to do some more?

SLIDES 7- 16 – test items

When you are ready, touch Blob to hear her word.

Did Blob get it right or did she say a made-up word?

(You do not need to repeat these instructions on every slide, unless the child needs prompting).

• The child should hear each item once.
• However, on each set of 10 items, you may allow each child the chance to hear one of the items for a second time if they request to do so. Make it clear that they should make sure to listen carefully next time the first time Blob says her word.
• If the child hesitates in choosing, or indicates that they are not sure, encourage them to choose. However, if the child indicates clearly that they don’t know or refuses to choose, you should indicate this on the score sheet and move on to the next item.
• If the child asks for clarification at any point in the test you can repeat the instruction that they should press the red button with the cross if Blob gets it wrong/says a made-up word, and they should press the green button with the tick if she gets it right/says a real word.

Allow child to indicate choice, and mark the score sheet accordingly.

On test items do not give any feedback, but give non-specific praise as appropriate.

Give general praise at the end of the test.

Lexical Judgement B

SLIDE 1 – click to make Blob appear:

This is Blob.

Blob is going to say some words.

Sometimes Blob says the word right, but sometimes she gets muddled up and says a made-up word.

Listen carefully to Blob’s words. You can help her by telling her when she says a word right and when she gets it wrong.

SLIDE 2

If she says a word right, press this green button with the tick(press button)

SLIDE 3

If she gets it wrong and says a made-up word, press this red button with the cross(press button)

SLIDE 4

So remember, Blob is going to say some words and you have to tell her if she says it right(press green button) or if she says a made-up word(press red button). Listen really carefully because she only says each word once.

Do you understand what you have to do? (Recap. instructions if necessary)

SLIDE 5 – teaching item 1

Note: On teaching items 1 and 2, if the child asks to hear the stimulus for a second time, allow them to do so. But explain – ‘I can let you hear it again because we are just practising, but you should try to listen carefully to Blob the first time she says her word’.

Ok, let’s practice. When you are ready, touch Blob to hear her word.

Did Blob get it right or did she say a made-up word?

Allow child to indicate their choice and give feedback as appropriate:

• If the child gets it right, confirm their choice eg ‘that’s right, Blob said allitagor .That’s not a real word. She made a mistake/she said a made-up word’.
• If they get it wrong, say ‘that’s a good try’ and explain/discuss the right answer is eg ‘Blob said allitagor. That’s not a real word, so you need to press the red button to show her she made a mistake/she said a made-up word.

SLIDE 6 – teaching item 2

Let’s try another one. When you are ready, touch Blob to hear her word.

Did Blob get it right or did she say a made-up word?

Allow child to indicate their choice and give feedback as appropriate:

• If the child gets it right, confirm their choice eg ‘that’s right, Blob said telephone - she said it right’.
• If they get it wrong, say ‘that’s a good try’ and explain/discuss the right answer is eg ‘Blob said telephone. That’s a real word, so you need to press the green button to show her she got it right’.

Note: When discussing non-words with the child, do not at any point make reference to the real word from which they are derived eg ‘Blob said alitagor, she meant to say alligator’.

Good. Are you ready to do some more?

SLIDES 7- 16 – test items

When you are ready, touch Blob to hear her word.

Did Blob get it right or did she say a made-up word?

(You do not need to repeat these instructions on every slide, unless the child needs prompting).

• The child should hear each item once.
• However, on each set of 10 items, you may allow each child the chance to hear one of the items for a second time if they request to do so. Make it clear that they should make sure to listen carefully next time the first time Blob says her word.
• If the child hesitates in choosing, or indicates that they are not sure, encourage them to choose. However, if the child indicates clearly that they don’t know or refuses to choose, you should indicate this on the score sheet and move on to the next item.
• If the child asks for clarification at any point in the test you can repeat the instruction that they should press the red button with the cross if Blob gets it wrong/says a made-up word, and they should press the green button with the tick if she gets it right/says a real word.

Allow child to indicate choice, and mark the score sheet accordingly.

On test items do not give any feedback, but give non-specific praise as appropriate.

Give general praise at the end of the test.

Child Number: Date:

Tester:

Lexical Judgement Test A

Teaching items: alligator tefelone

Word list A / Correct
(Green) / Incorrect
(Red) / Don’t
know
1 / helitopker / Yes / No / DK
2 / bilocuners / Yes / No / DK
3 / elephant / Yes / No / DK
4 / telilision / Yes / No / DK
5 / microphone / Yes / No / DK
6 / hospital / Yes / No / DK
7 / octopus / Yes / No / DK
8 / capertillar / Yes / No / DK
9 / estalacor / Yes / No / DK
10 / crocodile / Yes / No / DK
Total Correct (A)

Child Number: Date:

Tester:

Lexical Judgement Test B

Teaching items: allitagor telephone

Word list B / Correct
(Green) / Incorrect
(Red) / Don’t
Know
1 / binoculars / Yes / No / DK
2 / crococile / Yes / No / DK
3 / elelant / Yes / No / DK
4 / hospipal / Yes / No / DK
5 / television / Yes / No / DK
6 / microcone / Yes / No / DK
7 / octotus / Yes / No / DK
8 / escalator / Yes / No / DK
9 / helicopter / Yes / No / DK
10 / caterpillar / Yes / No / DK
Total Correct (B)
Total Correct (A)
Grand total (A+B)

Chiat, Piper, & Roy 2011 Please do not photocopy or cite without permission