Dynamic assessment has been shown to be effective in differentiating students who struggle due to unfamiliarity with tasks from those with intrinsic cognitive or language disorders. It uses a test-teach-retest model to measure language learning potential through mediated learning experiences. The document outlines a dynamic assessment protocol for assessing fictional narratives in bilingual students using mediation strategies during teaching and analyzing responsiveness, support needs, and ability to transfer skills to determine if differences are due to factors like language exposure or an underlying disorder. Key questions addressed include determining appropriate assessment targets and using results to qualify students for services or recommend classroom accommodations.

2. Dynamic assessment has been shown to be “one of
the few strategies available for differentiating
those students who do not perform well because of
unfamiliarity with the tasks from those who do not
perform well because they have intrinsic cognitive
or language learning disorders”
(Westby, 2001).

3. Objectives
• Define dynamic assessment
• Develop practical teaching tasks
• Select teaching targets to perform appropriate
assessments of CLD students
• Use the results to make differential diagnoses
of diverse learners

4. Framework for Assessment
▫ In-depth case history from multiple sources
▫ Assess both languages
 Formal Assessment
 Informal Assessment
▫ Observations in variety of contexts
▫ Dynamic Assessment
▫ Analyze and interpret results using difference vs.
disorder

5. Informal Assessments
• Language Samples:
▫ Conversation in both languages
▫ Narratives in both languages
• Answering WH-questions
• Following directions
• Portfolio

6. Making a Diagnosis
• Looking at scores
• Looking at functionality
▫ school reports, teacher observations
▫ parent reports
▫ clinical judgment/observations
• Doing dynamic assessment

7. Do you need Continuing Education or want
to listen to this course live?
Click here to visit
the online courses.

8. All of the documents and charts in this presentation
can be downloaded from our Free Resource Library.
Click here to visit the Resource Library

9. Test
Teach
Retest

10. Dynamic Assessment
• Less-biased approach for determining
difference vs. disorder
• Interactive and process-oriented procedure to
measure language learning potential
• Test-teach-retest model based on Vygotsky’s
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
• Provides some form of intervention or
“mediated learning” (Feuerstein)

11. Dynamic Assessment
• Mediated Learning Experiences (MLEs) often
include components of:
▫ Intentionality
▫ Transcendence
▫ Meaning
▫ Competence
• Observe child’s responsiveness, amount of
examiner effort, and ability to transfer what is
learned

12. Why do Dynamic Assessment?
• Aids in determining difference vs. disorder
• Gives opportunity for children not from
mainstream culture to understand demands of
task; reduces situational bias
• Dynamic assessment provides an alternative
approach to traditional procedures by focusing
on learning potential, rather than acquired
skills, possibly reducing test bias

13. Who gets Dynamic Assessment?
• Are some children obviously impaired?
• Do all children get it?
• Only ELL students?
• Low SES?
• Feasibility of multiple testing sessions
• Ethics?

14. How do we do Dynamic Assessment?
• How do we use the results of our
formal/informal assessments to select teaching
targets?
• Scaffolding
▫ What does it take for a child to be able to
perform a skill?

15. Mediated Learning Experience (MLE)
What are mediation strategies?
• Intentionality
• Meaning
• Transcendence
• Application*
• Competence

16. Intentionality
• What’s the goal?
▫ State the purpose of the teaching.

17. Intentionality
• Example: We’re going to work on following
directions that have 3 steps.

18. Meaning
• Why are we working on this?
▫ Tell why it’s important and relevant.

19. Meaning
• Example: When someone gives you directions,
it’s important to do each step so that you finish
the task.

20. Transcendence
• What happens if we don’t have this skill?
▫ Develop awareness of the relevance of the skill
to real life through critical thinking.

21. Transcendence
• Example: What if your teacher tells you to
color, cut, and glue, but you only follow two of
the directions? Then your project wouldn’t be
finished.

22. Application
• Here’s what I expect you to do. Let’s try it
together.
▫ Clarify expectations and give explicit
instructions. Provide a model and allow
opportunities for practice.

23. Application
• Example: This time when I give you a direction
that has 3 steps, I want you to do all 3 steps in
the order that I say them. I’ll do it first and
then it will be your turn.

24. Competence
• What did you learn? Why is it important? When
will you use this skill?
▫ Check for understanding of the skill and its
importance for the current context and future
classroom activities.

25. Competence
• Example: Remember, it’s important to listen to
all the steps in a direction and follow each one.
Now you tell me what we practiced and why
it’s important. Think about when you might
need to follow directions correctly in the
classroom. Then we’ll try it five more times.

26. Dynamic Assessment Protocol
Click here to download this chart as a pdf.

27. Dynamic Assessment Protocol
Age of
Acquisition
Narrative Language Target
(Macrostructure)
Pre‐Test
Results
Post‐Test
Results
(Min)
Post‐Test
Results
(Mod)
Post‐Test
Results
(Max)
3 years Setting (Time, Place)
Initiating event
4 years Temporal sequence*
Central theme*
5 years Labels characters
Labels surroundings
Attempts
Consequence
Reaction
6 years Provides implicit
aims/intentions of characters
Resolution
7 years Theme and Moral*
8 years Explicit aims/plans of characters
(uses words like “decided to”)
11 years Multiple plans
Multiple attempts
Multiple consequences
Embedded Stories*
>12 years Two separate but parallel
episodes that influence each
other
Click here to download this chart as a pdf.

28. Dynamic Assessment Protocol
Click here to download this chart as a pdf.

29. Dynamic Assessment
• Support strategies
• Teacher effort
• Cueing
▫ Number of cues
▫ Types of cues (visual, auditory)
▫ Number of presentations

30. How do we use results?
• Qualifying for services
• Classroom accommodations

31. How do we use results?
• 5-point scale:
▫ Teaching Tasks: Mediation Strategies
▫ Support Strategies/Teaching Effort
• Child’s Responsiveness to Strategies
• Results: how do we measure improvement?
• Re-test same formal items?
• Get a score?

32. Assessment of Fictional Narratives
• Arranged by age expectations of
macrostructure of fictional narratives.
▫ Consider microstructure as well.
• Separated by universal expectations and
expectancies that may vary by culture.
▫ Selecting targets for Dynamic Assessment

33. Dynamic Assessment Procedures for
Fictional Narratives:
• Child listens to recording of frog story
• Clinician determines targets for dynamic assessment
• Clinician uses Assessment of Fictional Narratives
during child’s retell
• If macrostructure is weak, teach to this target and
retest narrative retell for macrostructure
• If microstructure features are distracting, switch to
this type of analysis
• If microstructure skills are consistently weak in both
contexts (i.e., formal and informal), then select the
corresponding language target for dynamic assessment

34. Dynamic Assessment Procedures for
Fictional Narratives:
• Use mediation strategies
• Determine support strategy level
•  If child reaches 80% level, return to narrative to
look for carryover to functional context
•  If skills are present, NO Support for disability
•  If skills are not present, look at support strategy
level to help determine if intervention is indicated
•  If child is at 60% level or below, further
intervention may be indicated.

35. Questions
• If a student is a fast learner, does that mean
he/she does not need therapy?
• Do some fast learners need therapy to learn the
skill?
• Why haven’t they gotten it on their own
already?

36. Questions
• Can we feel confident saying a child is a typical
language learner when we only assess
dynamically in one language area?
• If the child performs well with minimal support
and low teacher effort in one area, should you
look at other language targets?

37. Summary
SLPs “will have to argue for the need for dynamic
assessment approaches, and they will have to
develop these approaches” (Westby, 2001).

38. References
• Feuerstein, R., Rand, Y., & Hoffman, M. (1979). The dynamic assessment
of retarded performers: The Learning Potential Assessment
Device. Baltimore, MD: University Park Press.
• Hughes et al. (1997). Guide to Narrative Language. Eau Claire, WI:
Thinking Publications.
• Gillam, R., & Pearson, N. (2004). Test of Narrative Language, Examiner’s
Manual. Austin, TX: PRO-ED.
• Gutierrez-Clellen, Vera F. (2002). Narratives in Two Languages: Assessing
Performance of Bilingual Children. Linguistics & Education, Vol.13 Issue 2,
p199.
• Heath, S.B. (1982). What no bedtime story means: Narrative skills at
home and school. Language in Society, 11(1), 49-76.
• Metzi, Gigliana. (2000). Cultural variations in the construction of
personal narratives: Central American and European American mothers’
elicitation styles. Discourse Processes. Vol. 30(2). 153-177.

39. References
• Miller, L., Gillam, R., & Peña, E. (2000). Dynamic Assessment and
Intervention: Improving Children’s Narrative Abilities. Austin, TX: PRO-ED.
• Poveda, David. (2002). La Ronda in a Spanish kindergarten classroom
with a cross-cultural comparison to sharing time in the U.S.A.
Anthorpology & Educaiton Quarterly. Vol 32(3). 301-325.
• Shiro, Martha Klein (1998). A discourse analysis approach to evaluate
stance in Venezuelan children’s narratives. Dissertation Abstracts
International: Sediton B: the Sciences and Engineering. Vol. 58 (8-B),
• Silliman et. al. (2002). Spanish and English Proficiency in the Linguistic
Encoding of Mental States in Narrative Retellings. Linguistics and
Education, Vol.13 Issue 2, p175.
• Vygotsky, L.S. (1967). Play and its Role in the Mental Development of the
Child. Soviet Psychology, 5, 6-18.
• Westby, C. (2001). Dynamic Assessment. Austin, TX: Word of Mouth, 13(1),
7-9.

40. Click to visit www.bilinguistics.com

41. Difference or Disorder?
Understanding Speech and Language
Patterns in Culturally and Linguistically
Diverse Students
Rapidly identify speech‐language
patterns related to second language
acquisition to
distinguish difference from disorder.