Development Standards and Expert Reviews - Speech and Language Tests: Language, Articulation, Social Communication

Research and Test Development Standards

At the Lavi Institute, all test development, research and standardization project procedures are implemented in compliance with the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, & National Council on Measurement in Education [AERA, APA, and NCME], 2014.

Additionally, all test development and research procedures are reviewed and approved by IntegReview IRB (Advarra), an accredited and certified independent institutional review board, which is organized and operates in compliance with the US federal regulations (including, but not limited to 21 CFR Parts 50 and 56, and 45 CFR Part 46), various guidelines as applicable (both domestic and international, including but not limited to OHRP, FDA, EPA, ICH GCP as specific to IRB review, Canadian Food and Drug Regulations, the Tri-Council Policy Statement 2, and CIOMS), and the ethical principles underlying the involvement of human subjects in research (including The Belmont Report, Nuremberg Code, Declaration of Helsinki).

Expert Reviews

Westby, C. (2020). Clinical assessment of pragmatics. Sage Journals. Word of Mouth 31:4 March/April 2020 Founder, Wpmet

Reviewed by Carol Westby, PhD, CCC-SLP, BCS-CL, ASDCS, an internationally-renowned expert on play assessment and development in children, Fellow of ASHA who has received Honors of ASHA, the ASHA Award for Contributions to Multicultural Affairs. [Test review of Clinical Assessment of Pragmatics]. In J. F. Carlson, K. F. Geisinger, & J. L. Jonson (Eds.), The twenty-first mental measurements yearbook.

Coufal, K. L. (2021). [Test review of Clinical Assessment of Pragmatics]. In J. F. Carlson, K. F. Geisinger, & J. L. Jonson (Eds.), The twenty-first mental measurements yearbook. Founder, Wpmet

Reviewed by the BUROS Center for Testing. Recognized for their quality worldwide, Buros publishes authoritative reference materials that contain descriptions and candidly critical evaluations of commercially available tests, essential to professionals involved in the evaluation, selection, and use of tests. Buros publications comprise expert and independent sources of information about tests.

Test Review: Clinical Assessment of Pragmatics (CAPs) | Smart Speech Therapy, 2018 Founder, Wpmet

Reviewed by Tatyana Elleseff, MA, CCC-SLP, Smart Speech Therapy, LLC stating that the CAPs test " offers excellent sensitivity and specificity....and is well suited to identify children with social communication difficulties" (Elleseff, 2018)

Clinical SLP Reviews

Lelis Nolasco-Garcia, M.S., CCC-SLP/Bilingual, ASHA ACE Award Recipient, Licensed in TX, CA, OR

Excellent tool for tele therapy, I strongly recommend it! I began using the VAT tools in early February via teletherapy for assessment of articulation, language, and social aspects of language. I am always looking for evidence-backed strong digital assessment tools I can quickly use with my students in teletherapy, but unfortunately there are only a few in the market, mostly in published test kits or in app mode.

I was so delighted when I came across Dr. Lavi’s CEU smart HUB a few years ago and was impressed with the high quality content she provides in her CEU training, but had only tried the IMPACT SLP, parent, and teacher forms and not the VAT. After 6 weeks of using the VAT this year, I can strongly recommend it to any SLP seeking for effective, time saving, formal and informal measures to effectively assess students, specially via teletherapy.

My assessment workload is about 200-250 yearly assessments, including bilingual, pragmatic, and AAC evaluations. So I had the great opportunity the past 6 weeks to use the VAT and these tools have proven to be helpful!!!!

One of my favorite things about VAT, is that the IMPACT forms are available in Spanish for bilingual parents. Another favorite thing is how easy one can score and obtain a report from the areas observed or assessed, including standard scores and definitions of the areas assessed. Another favorite area for me was how engaging the VAT articulation test was, the videos and changes of targets and scenes within the videos are so engaging for the young students I assess for articulation and phonology. Having the option of scoring things digitally or printing the forms is also an excellent advantage of the VAT. And I can not stress how important that parent IMPACT form was with focus on articulation from the parent and teacher’s perspectives.

The price of the subscription is a bargain for the amount of assessment tools the VAT provides formally and informally. The VAT is so convenient and one is able to access these tools unlimitedly for as many students as one needs. I plan to renew the VAT subscription each year! What a gem of a tool Dr. Lavi and her team has provided for us SLP’s who manage large assessment workloads! Thank you Dr. Lavi and the VAT team! I am so grateful for your helpful tools!