Authentic Assessment as an Approach to Preschool Speech-Language Screening

Authentic assessment procedures have been advocated to evaluate speech and language skills of preschool children from multicultural, low-socioeconomic backgrounds. In this article we discuss our use of minimal core competency methodology as an authentic assessment protocol for preschool screening. Despite the significant investment of time required, this protocol has proven to be useful and can actually save time in screening compared to quicker, standardized measures that lack sufficient specificity.