The IMPACT Language Rating Scale is a norm-referenced spoken language comprehension and spoken language rating scale for children and young adults ages 5 through 21 years old. It is composed of 45 test items, and has three separate forms to be completed by clinician, parent(s), and teacher(s). It is an accurate and reliable assessment tool that provides valid results on informal observations of spoken language, language processing and integration, and social interactions in the school and home environment. Normative data of this test is based on a nationally representative sample of 1431 children and young adults in the United States.

The Impact Model

The IMPACT model was developed based on current literature and examination of real-world challenges faced by individuals with speech and language impairments such as school demands and social interactions. This model was designed to analyze the real-life authentic observations of teachers, parents, and clinicians. The IMPACT model uses a contextualized, whole language approach to see the impact and the outcome of a speech and/or language impairment on education and social interactions.

Rating Scale Areas

The test is composed of five areas: spoken language comprehension, oral expression, language processing and integration, literacy, and social language skills.

Testing Format

The IMPACT Language Rating Scale is composed of 45 test items. The test uses a series of items that asks the rater to score on a 4-point scale (“never,” “sometimes,” “often,” and “typically”). The rating scale yields an overall percentile and standard score. While completing this checklist, examinees are able to watch videos that will guide them by providing specific examples of what each question is asking. The videos are there to help examiners along if they have any questions regarding the skill that they are assessing.

Uses and Purpose

Clinicians, parents, and teachers can provide valuable information regarding a student’s understanding of spoken language, expressive language, language integration, literacy, and social language abilities. This information can help determine what areas the child has deficits in and how deficits in these areas may impact the child in both the classroom and in the home environment. The IMPACT Language Rating Scale should be used to evaluate children or young adults who have a suspected or previous diagnosis of a language disorder. This tool will assist in the identification or continued diagnosis of a spoken language comprehension and/or expressive language disorder. Additionally, this rating scale will help determine if there are any educational or personal impacts. The results of the IMPACT Language  Rating Scale provide clinicians information on children and young adult’s ability to comprehend spoken language and use spoken language. By utilizing the IMPACT Language Rating Scale, we are able to develop a better understanding as to how a student’s language abilities may impact their academic performance, progress in school, and social interactions.

Code of Federal Regulations-Title 34: Education

34 C.F.R. §300.7 Child with a disability.  (c) Definitions of disability terms. (11) Speech or language impairment means a communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired articulation, a language impairment, or a voice impairment, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

The Individual’s with Disabilities Act (IDEA, 2004) states that when assessing a student for a speech or language impairment, we need to determine whether or not the impairment will negatively impact the child’s educational performance. In order to determine whether a language impairment exists, we can collect a language sample of the individual, and analyze language abilities and the impact of the impairment on academic success. 

Importance of Observations and Rationale for a Rating Scale

When evaluating an individual’s language abilities, the evaluation should include systematic observations and a contextualized analysis that involves multiple observations across various environments and situations (Westby et al., 2003). According to IDEA (2004), such types of informal assessment must be used in conjunction with standardized assessments. Section. 300.532(b), 300.533 (a) (1) (I, ii, iii); 300.535(a)(1) of IDEA states that, “assessors must use a variety of different tools and strategies to gather relevant functional and developmental information about a child, including information provided by the parent, teacher, and information obtained from classroom-based assessments and observation.” By using both formal and informal assessments, clinicians are able to capture a larger picture of a student’s language abilities. By observing a child’s language via informal observation, examinees (i.e., clinician, teacher, and parent) can observe how the child understands language and uses language (e.g., express needs and wants, make requests, converse with peers/friends, etc.), as well as the potential impact a language disorder may have on a child’s academic and social life.

When we consider a formal spoken language comprehension and/or spoken language assessment, it may be difficult for clinicians to observe and gauge the impact that these deficits may have on a student’s everyday life. Parent and teacher input can be beneficial at this time because it allows for the observations to take place in an authentic everyday setting. Additionally, the examiners are already familiar with the child and may know what to look for which will help create a true representation of the child’s language abilities. The IMPACT Language Functioning Rating Scale provides us with clinician, parent, and teacher observations and perspectives of a child’s understanding and use of language. When given the guidelines of what to look for, parents will be able to provide numerous examples of their child’s language abilities and the impact these deficits may have on a child. Difficulties in the various parts of language may not be so easily observed during clinical assessment and observation. Furthermore, it can be important to obtain information on how a child engages with their family, friends, and peers during common tasks in order to obtain ecologically and culturally valid information on how a child functions and communicates on a daily basis (Jackson, Pretti- Frontczak, Harjusola-Webb, Grisham-Brown, & Romani, 2009; Westby, Stevens, Dominguez, & Oetter, 1996).

During assessment and intervention planning, it is important to consider how spoken language comprehension and spoken language abilities may adversely affect educational performance and a child’s social interactions. When compared to typically developing peers, children with language impairments are rated by their kindergarten teachers as being significantly less prepared in areas such as literacy, math, pro-social communication, and behavioral competence (Justice, Bowles, Pence Turnbull, & Skibbe, 2009). Previous research has suggested that language disorders can be detrimental to a child’s development and children whose language falls behind their peers are at an increased risk of academic failure (Durkin, Conti-Ramsden, & Simkin, 2012; Johnson, Beitchman, & Brownlie, 2010), behavioral and psychiatric problems (Conti-Ramsden, Mok, Pickles, & Durkin, 2013, Snowling & Hulme, 2006), unemployment, economic disadvantage, (Parsons, Schoon, Rush, & Law, 2011), and social impairment (Clegg, Hollis, Mawhood, & Rutter, 2005).

Contextual Background for Rating Scale Areas

Language impairment involves difficulty in the understanding and/or use of spoken, written, and/or other symbol systems. The disorder may involve: “(1) the form of language (phonology, morphology, syntax); (2) the content of language (semantics); and/or (3) the function of language in communication (pragmatics) in any combination” (ASHA, 2016). Listening comprehension is a high-order skill that involves both language and cognitive abilities (Florit, Roch, & Levorato, 2013; Kim & Phillips, 2014; Lepola, Lynch, Laakkonen, Silven, & Niemi, 2012). Specifically, listening comprehension refers to one’s ability to comprehend spoken language (e.g., conversations, stories/narratives) by extracting and constructing meaning. Research has showed that listening comprehension is critical to reading comprehension (Foorman, Koon, Petscher, Mitchell, & Truckenmiller, 2015; Kim, 2015; Kim, Wagner, & Lopez, 2012; Kim & Wagner, 2015). When children present with reading comprehension deficiencies, there is a heavy focus on word recognition difficulties, including dyslexia and learning disabilities. Difficulties with word recognition are linked to weakness in the phonological domain of language and are often identified early on in the pre-school years (Catts, Fey, Zhang, & Tomblin, 2001). On the other hand, some children demonstrate reading comprehension difficulties despite adequate word reading abilities (Catts, Adlof, & Ellis Weismer, 2006; Nation, Clarke Marshall, & Durand, 2004). This group of individuals is known as poor comprehenders. Poor comprehenders are able to read text accurately and fluently at age-appropriate levels, however, they have difficulty understanding what they are reading (Cain & Oakhill, 2007; Nation, 2005). For example, when reading, poor comprehenders have weaknesses in the areas of semantics, syntax (Catts, Adlof, & Ellis Weismer, 2006; Nation & Snowling, 1998; Nation, Snowling, & Clarke, 2007) and more complex parts of language such as idioms, inferencing, comprehension monitoring, and knowledge of text structure (Oakhill, 1984; Cain & Towse, 2008; Cain, Oakhill, & Bryant, 2004; Oakhill & Yuill, 1996). Additionally, when we consider narrative comprehension, children with language disorders are less likely to provide correct answers to literal or inferential questions about stories that have been read to them (Gillam, Fargo, & Robertson, 2009; Laing & Kamhi, 2002). Since reading comprehension takes time to develop, it is difficult to demonstrate reading comprehension deficits in children before they are able to read accurately and fluently. Thus, these students’ reading comprehension deficits may go unnoticed until later grades. As such, it is critical that language deficits are identified as early on in development as possible.

There is also a strong relationship between oral language abilities and reading ability (Hulme & Snowling, 2013). Nation, Clarke, Marshall, and Durand (2004) investigated poor compehenders’ spoken language skills. The results of this study found that these students were less skilled than those in the typically developing group on semantic tasks (e.g., vocabulary and word knowledge), morphosyntax (e.g., past tense inflection, sentence comprehension) and aspects of language use (e.g., understanding figurative language). Research also suggests that students with expressive language difficulties are four to fives times more likely than their peers to present with reading difficulties (Catts, Fey, Zhang, & Tomblin, 2001). For example, Zielinkski, Bench, and Madsen (1997) explored expressive language delays in preschoolers and found that these children were more likely to have difficulties with reading performance. Poll and Miller (2013) also reported that when children are 8 years old, expressive language delays could be a significant risk factor for poor oral language and reading comprehension. Furthermore, Lee (2011) discovered that expressive language development predicts comprehension of reading passages in both third and fifth grade students. Vocabulary can also play an important role early on in development as was demonstrated in Duff, Reen, Plunkett, and Nation’s (2015) study that found infant vocabulary between 16 and 24 months is predictive of reading comprehension early on in school instruction years. Additionally, Pysridou, Eklund, Poikkeus, and Torppa’s study (2018) found that expressive language ability at age 2–2.5 years old is associated with reading comprehension in ages 8–16 years old.

Listening comprehension and oral language abilities can also be important when we consider writing development (Kim, Al Otaiba, Wanzek, & Gatlin, 2015; Hulme & Snowling, 2013). Children with language impairments have been found to show grammatical errors (Gillam & Johnston, 1992; Scott & Windsor, 2000; Windsor, Scott, & Street, 2000) and spelling errors in their written texts. The spelling errors are similar to those found in children with dyslexia (Puranik, Lombardino, & Altmann, 2007), however, an individual’s ability to create and think of new ideas appears to be specific to difficulties within the language system (Bishop & Clarkson, 2003; Puranik, Lombardino, & Altmann, 2007). Numerous studies have explored the difficulties that school-age children with language impairment have with telling stories. For example, when compared to typically developing children, children with language deficits tend to compose stories that contain fewer words and utterances (Moyano & McGillivray, 1988 [as cited in Hughes, McGillivray, & Schmidek, 1997]), fewer story grammar components (Paul, 1996), reduced sentence complexity (Gillam & Johnston, 1992), fewer complete cohesive ties (Liles, 1985), increased grammatical errors (Liles, Duffy, Merritt, & Purcell, 1995; Norbury & Bishop, 2003), and poorer overall story quality (Gillam, McFadden, & van Kleeck, 1995; McFadden & Gillam, 1996).

Over the last thirty years, there has been an abundance of research demonstrating that children with specific language impairment (SLI) are at a disadvantage when it comes to peer relationships (Durkin & Conti-Ramsden, 2010). Individuals with SLI engage less in active conversation interactions, enter less frequently into positive social interactions, demonstrate poorer discourse skills, are more likely to provide inappropriate verbal responses, and are less likely to influence others successfully (Hadley and Rice, 1991; Craig, 1993; Craig and Washington, 1993; Grove, Conti-Ramsden, & Donlan, 1993; Guralnick, Connor, Hammond, Gottman, & Kinnish, 1996; Brinton, Fujiki, & McKee 1998; Vallance, Im, & Cohen 1999). Children with SLI also tend to score lower in the areas of social skills, social cognitive abilities, and may have trouble with behavioral and emotion regulation (Cohen, Barwick, Horodezky, Vallance, & Im, 1998; Fujiki, Brinton, & Clarke, 2002; Marton, Abramoff, &Rosenzweig, 2005; Lindsay, Dockrell, & Strand, 2007). Additionally, children with language impairments are at higher risk of academic failure, social exclusions, behavioral and emotional difficulties, and are more vulnerable to being bullied (Conti-Ramsden, Durkin, Simkin, & Knox, 2009; St Clair, Pickles, Durkin, & Conti-Ramsden, 2011). Lastly, children with language disorders are also at a heightened risk of exhibiting externalizing problems and antisocial conduct disorders (Beitchman, Wilson, Johnson, et al., 2001; Conti- Ramsden & Botting, 2004).

Description of Rating Scale Areas

Spoken Language Comprehension

The spoken language comprehension rating scale items look at how well an individual understands spoken language. For example, rating scale items look at a child’s ability to understand grade level stories, vocabulary, narratives, and his/her ability to answer questions regarding a given story. Additional test items in this area look at an individual’s ability to follow along with a conversation, lecture, or discussion, and the ability to recognize when something he/she hears does not make sense.

Sample Spoken Language Comprehension Item: After listening to a lesson, discussion, or story, is the student able to answer who, what, where, and when questions? For example, is the student able to recall the characters, setting, time, place, and what was happening in the story?

Oral Expression

The oral expression rating scale items look at how well an individual is able to use spoken language. For example, test items investigate if the individual is able to appropriately ask and answer questions, initiate conversations, use narrative storytelling, grade level vocabulary, correct word order, and grammar. Additional test items in this area look at an individual’s ability to add comments and questions to a conversation, maintain the topic, form thoughts and ideas, problem solve, negotiate, and use critical thinking skills.

Sample Oral Expression Item: Does the student experience difficulty asking or answering questions in class? For example, does he/she have trouble responding to teacher or peer comments during classroom activities?

Language and Literacy

The language and literacy rating scale items look at an individual’s ability to comprehend and understand what he/she is reading, to distinguish between the main idea and supporting details, and to use his/her own experiences to predict what might happen in grade-level stories. Additionally, literacy rating scale items look at an individual’s writing abilities.

Sample Language Processing and Integration Item: Does the student demonstrate an understanding of grade level stories and literature? For example, is the student able to follow along with stories that are read in class and is he/she able to comprehend what is going on in the story?

Language Processing and Integration

The language processing and integration rating scale items look at how an individual follows multi-step instructions, understands figurative language, analogies, and inferences, and sequences details or events. Additionally, rating scale items look at whether an individual’s ability to comprehend and use spoken language impacts his/her reading abilities.

Sample Language Processing and Integration Item: Does the student have a difficult time making inferences/implied meaning from given information? For example, does the student have a difficult time “reading between the lines,” making connections, or drawing conclusions?

Social Interactions

The social interactions rating scale items look at how spoken language comprehension and use may impact an individual’s social interactions. For example, rating scale items may look at whether an individual is aware of his/her language deficits and how he/she expresses their feelings towards their language disorder. Additionally, rating scale items investigate an individual’s confidence regarding his/her communication and how this impacts their participation in conversations and activities with peers, friends, and family.

Sample Language Processing and Integration Item: Does the student’s ability to understand and use language make it difficult for him/her to participate fully in school related clubs or activities? For example, does the student’s language skills hold them back from joining drama club or yearbook club?