Swedish school based speech-language pathologists’ perception of language assessment tools and practices

Abstract

This qualitative study aimed to increase the knowledge about Swedish school-based SLPs’ perception of language assessment tools and practices. Topics included purposes of language assessments within a school context, experience of existing tools and important dimensions. Nineteen school-based SLPs were interviewed in focus groups and the data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The findings indicated that existing tools are only partly functional, and therefore the SLPs sometimes needed to depart from standardized procedures or use assessment with age groups outside the test manuals. The SLPs stressed the importance to combine multiple assessment forms and to collaborate with other professions in school. The results have increased our knowledge of how Swedish school-based SLPs perceive language assessments and their opinions on how assessments need to be designed. The present study contributes to the growing body of research that shed light on the importance of combining different assessment forms to reach a functional focus.