Calculating how much a child speaks and hears their home language can be difficult. Yet, it’s really important information for choosing what languages to test in and what to focus on in therapy.

That’s why we created this language proficiency calculator. It works in conjunction with our Teacher and Parent Questionnaire for Speech-Language Evaluations. Or, you can use this calculator to interview both groups.

To get the most accurate answer we need four pieces of information: how much a child hears and uses a home language, and how much a child hears and uses English. This calculator will help you get there.

Here’s why most current processes fall short:

• Many language proficiency results are really old. Typically they're taken or determined when the child enters the educational system.
• Most of these forms were intended for classroom placement decisions, not for special education.
• Many forms use negatively framed language, which doesn't lead to reliable reporting.
• Most language proficiency questionnaires only use two foundational questions, what language is spoken in the home and what language is spoken at school?

With this tool and the online version, once you have the information filled out, the tool automatically makes you a summary that changes based on your inputs.

What Does the Best Intake Form or Parent Questionnaire for Speech and Language Evaluation Look Like?

This is where it gets fun. The pandemic gave us the opportunity to re-evaluate the entire way we think about the data collection portion of the evaluation process. It was clear that there were 7 pieces of information that were gathering. That’s not a lot! But they all have very specific requirements and are given out to very different people. It was also clear that most SLPs lacked the one form that has become the hallmark for our speedy, accurate evaluations: our assessment impressions!

All of these are available inside Teachers Pay Teachers:

Assessment Impressions: The ability to accurately and quickly capture all of your thoughts while you are evaluating and more importantly, immediately after you finish. This also helps us if we can’t test in a single window of time.

Classroom Observation: This is the second form that most SLPs missed. It wasn’t that they weren’t doing the observation, they were just relying on memory or taking notes somewhere. Not only does a classroom observation form help organize this, it makes it possible for someone else to do if for you!

Intake Form: These gather all of the parent, teacher, and student contact information.

Parent Questionnaire: Only the facts! In the correct order! In parent-friendly language! In their home language! In a kind tone! For goodness sake, we are suggesting their child has an impairment, we need to interact with compassion.

Teacher Questionnaire: Written so that teachers can understand them and complete them in their busy schedule. These forms need to address their concerns and relate directly to the classroom progress that the teacher is identifying as being the reason for the referral.

Health Form: This is the most straightforward of all the forms but we are often making our nurses and healthcare professionals rewrite the exact same thing every time. Why not check-boxes?