Available in two versions for preschool--0 to 35 months and 3 to 5 years--this test was developed for teachers to use in their classrooms to assess students during school hours. In addition to testing social-emotional, motor and cognitive skills, the Brigance Screens also look for abnormalities in language development. Teachers can keep score by hand or online through the Brigance Online Management System. These scores are then placed into guidelines with cutoff points that show which students are at average, above average and below average ranges.
This boxed set holds 44 full-color photographs of everyday situations and objects to test the language skills of children ages 3 to 5 years and 11 months old. In addition, there are statements and verbal questions that accompany each card to guide the user in assessing the child's strengths and weaknesses in language skills. The teacher, or whoever is giving the test, will listen for the range of each child's plurals, pronouns, copulas, tenses and other grammatical clues. The scoring guidelines and rankings for this test come from a normative sample of more than 2000 children nationwide.
The primary focus of this language system is to determine whether children ages 3 to 6 can handle the normal level of discourse that can be found in the average preschool class. This involves using one or both the norm-referenced (formal) assessment and the nonstandarized (informal) assessments provided in this kit; the results are based on a study of 463 children living in 16 states across the country. The exam is entirely verbal and engages the children in conversations to test their ability to link verbs with perceptual information while identifying those children who could have speech or language disabilities. The exam generally takes 30 minutes to complete.