Which Protocol Should I Choose?
Protocol Selection
For your task to provide you the ability to compare your student/client with peers of a same age, it is important that you select a task that was done with students that age. It is also important to remember that the type of task you select will impact the type of sample you obtain. For instance, school-age students are less likely to exhibit difficulties with language when a conversational sample is gathered because they are able to control the topic and the semantics and syntax used in conversational language are not the same as those used in academic language.
Academic oral language is what occurs in the classroom. This language is more complex because it is decontextualized, abstract, and utilizes complex syntactic language features such as subordinate clauses, elaborated noun phrases, and connectors such as adverbial conjuncts (e.g., however, similarly, etc.). Therefore, if you have a student that is struggling with reading comprehension, writing, and other academic skills in oral or written language, you will want an academic language task such as narrative, expository, or persuasive tasks.
Lastly, just as with a standardized test, you will want to select a task that will permit the database to select those that are 6 months older and younger than your student. Using the table below, you can review the different types of activities and then select a task that 1) aligns with the concerns of the team and 2) will permit you to have age-comparison data.
Audio Files
The videos below will provide some basic instructions for preparing your materials when eliciting narrative samples as well as general information on recording the audio files. Please note, we cannot transcribe from video recordings but will need it to be in an audio format such as mp3 or mp4.
To request your language sample to be transcribed, please complete this form. You will upload your audio file here.
Videos
General Instructional Videos:
Eliciting Narratives from Books Without Words
Eliciting Narratives from Books With Words
Conversational Samples
Task Name: Conversation (SALT)
Age Range: 2;9-13;3
Where Samples Were Gathered: Wisconsin and California
Oral Narrative Retells
Task Name: Frog Where Are You
Age Range: 3;6-7;5
Where Samples Were Gathered: Wisconsin and California
Video Example of How to Elicit: How to do Frog Where Are You
Task Name: Pookins Gets Her Way
Age Range: 7;0-8;11
Where Samples Were Gathered: Wisconsin and California
Video Example of How to Elicit: How to do Pookins Gets Her Way
Task Name: A Porcupine Named Fluffy
Age Range: 7;11-9;11
Where Samples Were Gathered: Wisconsin and California
Video Example of How to Elicit: How to do A Porcupine Named Fluffy
Task Name: Dr. DeSoto
Age Range: 9;3-12;8
Where Samples Were Gathered: Wisconsin and California
Example of How to Elicit: How to do Dr. DeSoto
Oral Narrative Self Select Story
Task Name: Self Select Story
Age Range: 5;2-13;3
Where Samples Were Gathered: Wisconsin
Oral Expository Task
Task Name: Explain A Game or Sport
Age Range: 10;7-18;9
Where Samples Were Gathered: Wisconsin
Oral Persuasive Task
Task Name: Change a Rule or Situation
Age Range: 14;8-18;9 (USA); 12;10-18;4 (Australia)
Where Samples Were Gathered: Wisconsin; Australia
West Virginia Writing Samples
Task Name: What Happened One Day (Narrative)
Age Range: 2nd-12th Grade
Where Samples Were Gathered: West Virginia
Task Name: The Nature of Friendship (Expository)
Age Range: 3rd-12th Grade
Where Samples Were Gathered: West Virginia
Task Name: The Circus Controversy (Persuasive)
Age Range: 6th-12th Grade
Where Samples Were Gathered: West Virginia