Stimulability Task

This dynamic assessment task provides further information about a child’s sound system during the characterization phase in English and/or Spanish. These documents include a protocol and a guide that describes the process and theoretical underpinnings. Typically, standard assessments may include a brief stimulability task during which a child is asked to produce missing target sounds in isolation without support. This does not provide a complete picture of what a child can do given instruction. Often, children can produce target sounds at the syllable level or in the context of certain vowels.

During this task, the SLP provides different levels of support to determine if the child’s performance improves. Each missing sound is elicited in isolation, and then in initial, medial and final position in the context of the /i/, /a/ and /u/ vowels. If the child demonstrates modifiable skills, this may suggest a less severe disorder. Miccio (2002) stated that such modifiability suggests the “integrity of sensory input, linguistic, and motor output systems is intact to some degree.”