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Screen and diagnose ooral and written language ddisorders—including dyslexia— with just one test kit! t ooonnneee t kkit

Discover the power of TILLS!

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Discover the test trusted by education professionals

across the country

“TILLS is an excellent comprehensive tool for all ages of students.”

—Jayne Trombley, MA CCC-SLP, retired public school speech/language pathologist

“With TILLS, I can give one assessment and get a wealth of information rather

than giving multiple assessments.”

—Audrey Adams, reading specialist

“I would recommend TILLS to any and all school-based SLPs.”

—Indira D.B. Feustel, M.S., CCC-SLP, speech-language pathologist

“TILLS is the most comprehensive assessment I’ve used in the 20 years I’ve

been a school-based speech-language pathologist.”

—Sue Torney, M.A., CCC-SLP, speech-language pathologist

“Very easy to administer and score.”

—Cathleen Queeno-Wall, M.A., CCC-SLP, Speech-Language Pathologist

“I plan to use TILLS as an integral part of my diagnostic process.”

—Stephen MacCormack, M.S., SLP/CCC, Ed.S., private practice and school-based reading specialist

Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills™ and TILLS™ are trademarks of Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. The contents of TILLS were developed under Grant No. R324A100354 from the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.

One test kit. Results you can trust.

Are you frustrated with your current assessments?

Do you find yourself putting together your own test battery, even though you know that’s not best practice?

Do you wish there was a better way to diagnose language and literacy disorders—including dyslexia?

Then it’s time to discover the Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills™ (TILLS™), the groundbreaking assessment that tests oral and written language skills in students ages 6–18 years. The TILLS Examiner’s Kit is the reliable, valid, and comprehensive test kit you need to:

1 identify and diagnose language and literacy disorders, including dyslexia 2 document patterns of relative strengths and

2 document patterns of relative strengths and weaknesses 3 track changes in language and literacy skills

3 track changes in language and literacy skills over time

15 TILLS Subtests Vocabulary Awareness Phonemic Awareness Story Retelling Nonword Repetition Nonword Spelling Listening Comprehension Reading Comprehension Following Directions Delayed Story Retelling Nonword Reading Reading Fluency Written Expression (yields 3 scores) Social Communication Digit Span Forward Digit Span Backward

Through 15 subtests measuring key skills with curriculum relevance in mind (see sidebar), you’ll assess and compare the full range of students’ oral and written language and literacy skills. The resulting scores and the clear, ata-glance TILLS Profile help you identify and track a student’s strengths and weaknesses—information you’ll use as you develop custom-tailored interventions.

Products

TILLS Examiner’s Kit—Now with Tele-TILLS!

By Nickola Nelson, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, Elena Plante, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, Nancy Helm-Estabrooks, Sc.D., CCC-SLP, & Gillian Hotz, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

Everything you need to administer, score, and interpret TILLS.

• Quick Start Guide. Keep this convenient laminated guide close at hand for an overview of the test, summaries of the subtests, and basic instructions for administration and scoring.

• Examiner’s Manual. All the information you need to diagnose with TILLS. Includes information on administrating, scoring, and how to interpret scores for the TILLS subtests.

• Technical Manual. Your essential guide to TILLS development, validity and reliability, and more.

• TILLS Forms. You’ll get 25 Examiner Record Forms to record and score student responses, plus 25 Student Response Forms your students will use to record responses on four TILLS subtests.

• Access to Tele-TILLS. After a timely 2020 study supported the validity of administering TILLS virtually, the TILLS developers have made supplemental Tele-TILLS materials available to

• Stimulus Book. All the print stimuli you need to administer TILLS subtests.

administering TILLS virtually, the TILLS developers have made supplemental Tele-TILLS materials available to guide users who are supporting users in online settings.

Products

TILLS™ Easy-Score™

TILLS Easy-Score™ is your electronic scoring solution for TILLS. A free, convenient, responsive web-based application, Easy-Score automates the steps of the Scoring Chart and Identification Chart, Profile Chart, and Confidence Intervals on the Examiner Record Form. For busy TILLS users, this ensures:

• Reduced paperwork time. Spend less time scoring by hand and more time helping students.

• Accurate, error-free scores. Human error can lead to misleading scores and inaccurate identification of disorders. Easy-Score ensures correct scoring every time.

• Faster, more efficient process. Easy-Score streamlines the TILLS process so you can move on to the next steps without delay—and start connecting children with services and supports.

Writing meaningful reports takes time and expertise. Download free, easy-to-use templates to help with this essential step toward improving outcomes for children. The TILLS Report Writing Templates give you step-by-step help with writing customized reports for students who have completed TILLS, increasing the efficiency and accuracy of your reporting. All you have to do is register at the TILLS website, and the templates are free and ready for you to start using!

Register to use the report templates at http://bit.ly/tills-templates

TILLS™ Practice Kit

Ideal for preservice higher education courses and inservice trainings, this convenient Practice Kit includes the materials needed for training and practice sessions with TILLS. You and your trainees will get essential materials for learning about TILLS and standardized testing in general. TILLS Practice Kits are used to:

• Give trainees a complete
overview of TILLS

TILLS™ Writing Report Templates

• Familiarize trainees with the TILLS subtests through practice exercises

• Offer concrete examples of standardized testing principles • Provide practice for

• Provide practice for scoring and interpreting all subtests

Note: Trainees each should purchase a Practice Kit for use in their coursework or TILLS training session. Instructors should have their own Practice Kit, and they may request a desk copy of the Examiner’s Manual (as it is not included in the Practice Kit).

KIT COMPONENTS: One Examiner’s Practice

How it works

How it works

Here’s how to use the TILLS Examiner’s Kit to screen for and diagnose language and literacy disorders, including dyslexia.

SCREEN with the SLS

First, you’ll identify students at risk for a language/literacy disorder with the evidenced-based Student Language

Watch the webinar: Identify Dyslexia Using TILLS: http://bit.ly/TILLSdyslexia

student. Complete in less than five minutes, the SLS helps you:

• Gather input about a struggling student’s strengths and needs from multiple sources— a key requirement of IDEA.

• Enhance home–school communication by gaining new insight into student performance, whether or not there are concerns.

Included in the TILLS Kit, with packs of 50 available separately

DIAGNOSE with TILLS

After the SLS helps you identify children at risk for a language/literacy disorder, use TILLS for diagnosis. Here’s how:

ï Step 1: Administer all 15 TILLS subtests. If you’re short on time, administer only the Identification Core subtests for the student’s age. Then complete the testing at a later time.

ï Step 2: Complete the first page of the Examiner’s Record Form, which helps you score the subtests, compare the scores to those of the student’s same-age peers, and compare the sound/word composite score to the sentence discourse composite score. ï Step 3: Complete the Identification Chart to

ï Step 3: Complete the Identification Chart to determine if the student has a disorder.

ï Step 4: Complete the Profile Chart (see below) for an at-a-glance, big-picture look at the student’s current language and literacy skills in comparison to the quadrant model on which the TILLS is based.

Top Benefits of TILLS

Ø More comprehensive assessment. TILLS is the only test that assesses both

oral AND written language with an evidence-based model that shows how these skills relate to each other.

Ø More sensitive to picking up disorders. The TILLS normative sample only

includes typically developing students, in order to provide the most accurate

assessment and to support the major purpose of the test—to identify the presence of language/literacy disorders. Including only students without

impairment in the normative group establishes a standard for typical

performance that can be differentiated from the performance of students with language and literacy disorders.

Ø More meaningful results. TILLS uses percentile ranks, not Normal Curve

Equivalent (NCE) percentiles, to give additional rich information about the

number of students in the norm reference group who earned a raw score

lower than your student. NCE percentiles give the same information as

standard scores and assume the normative distribution is a perfect bell curve.

TILLS percentile ranks reflect the actual curve of the underlying normative distribution, thus providing more information to inform diagnostic decisions.

Ø Recognizes influence of low SES. Evidence-based adjustments to cut scores were determined to prevent over-identification of students when

influences of low SES may be a primary concern, rather than language impairment.

Ø One test is best. With TILLS, you get the full picture of oral and written

language skills with just one test kit. Because you’re not administering items

from multiple tests, you can compare results in different areas and know that your results are psychometrically sound.

Ø Powerful TILLS profile. TILLS profiles give you an at-a-glance understanding

of your students’ strengths and needs—something other tests can’t offer.

These profiles help you communicate with others, pinpoint what to work on,

diagnose and recognize profiles of disorders, and easily track changes in specific areas of concern.

Ø A real time-saver. If you’re an experienced clinician, you can administer TILLS

in 90 minutes or less. (It can also be chunked into several sessions.) You’ll

spend less time testing and more time helping students. The time you do

spend testing will be meaningful and relevant to understanding your students’ needs.

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Technical Data

Specificity and Sensitivity

Many other tests don’t provide adequate information on diagnostic accuracy—or if they do, it’s often for a single group of students with a wide age range. But TILLS tested sensitivity and specificity across the full age range covered by the test. Each TILLS subtest meets strong psychometric standards using scientific evidence gathered in pilot studies and field trials, a national beta trial, and a standardization study with more than 1,200 students.

Diagnostic accuracy data are broken down into nine different “age bands” meaningful to the development of language and literacy skills:

Sensitivity and specificity for screening with the TILLS SLS are also strong for ratings made by teachers and parents:

LEARN MORE ONLINE!

Check out tillstest.com for a TILLS technical excerpt, free webinars, report writing templates, and other resources to help you learn about and make the most of TILLS. www.tillstest.com | 1-800-638-3775

TILLS

Two models. One powerful test.

TILLS incorporates two effective models: the Language Levels x Modalities Model and the Quadrant Model. These models work together to uncover the nature of a student’s strengths and weaknesses across both oral and written modalities.

The Language Levels x Modalities Model

TILLS is based on a unique Language Levels x Modalities Model that covers all the language and literacy skills students must demonstrate to succeed in school. This graphic gives you an overview of the model, along with the TILLS subtests designed to test each part of the model.

The Language Levels x Modalities Model makes it easy to understand at a glance what’s being measured and how skills interrelate. It also helps interdisciplinary teams communicate clearly about the student’s needs.

Oral and written language abilities during the school years are best explained by the Quadrant Model that includes sound/ word and sentence/discourse language levels as contributing factors. By comparing students’ language/literacy skills at the sound/word level and the sentence/discourse level (rather than focusing on expressive/receptive factors or oral/written factors like other tests do), TILLS helps you make a differential diagnosis aligned with the quadrant where the student’s profile fits best.

Nelson, N. W., Plante, E., Anderson, M., & Applegate, E. B. (2022). The dimensionality of language and literacy in the school-age years. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 65(7), 2629–2647. https://bpub.fyi/JSLHR

The Quadrant Model

Across the ages

The four case stories on the following pages illuminate the power of TILLS for children across the age span and with different language strengths and needs.

Dawn’s Story

Dawn was a 6-year-old kindergarten student with a previous diagnosis of oral language difficulties. When she was assessed with TILLS toward the end of her kindergarten year, her results indicated that these difficulties were ongoing.

To the right is her quadrant model profile. Dawn’s scores fell in the lower left quadrant, meaning she had low scores on both sound/word-level and sentence/discourse-level abilities.

Below is her TILLS profile. As the Xs on the chart indicate, Dawn scored one or more standard deviations below the mean on 7 out of the 10 oral language measures. She scored low on all the subtests that make up the Identification Core for 6- and 7-year-olds—Vocabulary Awareness, Phonemic Awareness, and Nonword Repetition.

(Key: DSB, Digit Span Backward; DSF, Digit Span Forward; DSR, Delayed Story Retelling; FD, Following Directions; LC, Listening Comprehension; NWRead, Nonword Reading; NWRep, Nonword Repetition; NWSpell, Nonword Spelling; PA, Phonemic Awareness; RC, Reading Comprehension; RF, Reading Fluency; SC, Social Communication; SR, Story Retelling; VA, Vocabulary Awareness; WE- Disc, Written Expression–Discourse Score; WE-Sent, Written Expression–Sentence Score; WE-Word, Written Expression–Word Score.)

So what did Dawn’s team do to help? Well, they were especially concerned that Dawn’s low scores on the Nonword Repetition and Phonemic Awareness subtests signaled problems detecting and representing the phonological structure of words. And her low score on the Vocabulary Awareness subtest told them she was having trouble describing semantic relationships among word meanings. With these challenges in mind, the team decided to help Dawn build stronger associations between how words sound and look in print and what they mean.

First, Dawn’s SLP and teacher collaborated to identify vocabulary from the upcoming unit on professions (e.g., firefighters, doctors) and their tools. The team took advantage of Dawn’s relative strength with printed language, which her TILLS reading and writing scores had uncovered. Dawn’s SLP created notebook pages with Dawn for each profession, adding pictures and words representing sets of tools. This allowed the SLP to teach Dawn about compound words, such as firehose, and the morphological components of words like thermometer and microscope. Dawn’s teacher reinforced this work by teaching the whole class how to identify the speech sounds they heard at the beginning and end of words and to segment and blend sounds.

• The teacher had Dawn sit at the front of the group during daily story reading, and she directed

The team also had concerns about Dawn’s relatively low scores in Story Retelling and Delayed Story Retelling—especially since Dawn had answered only one of the four comprehension questions correctly. After a close examination of her TILLS profile, they found that Dawn’s comprehension difficulties related to challenges in understanding the deeper meanings of language. To address this:

some of her questions to Dawn (“Why did the character do that?”) to check comprehension.

• The teacher invited Dawn and other students to act out characters’ parts in some stories to aid comprehension.

• Dawn was asked to bring recently read storybooks to her speech-language intervention sessions. Her SLP used them to assess Dawn’s comprehension and teach her to make sense of what she was hearing.

• The teacher and SLP team-taught lessons about the parts of a story to Dawn and other students with special needs. They provided a template that the students used to plan and write stories. Dawn enjoyed reading her stories to her teacher, peers, and parents. This helped her deepen her wordand sentence-structure knowledge while also developing her social understanding of stories.

The TILLS test uncovered difficulties Dawn’s team might have missed on their own—and helped them realize that she would need further targeted interventions before her struggles could escalate. Results of TILLS were instrumental in helping Dawn’s team consider both her strengths and needs as they provided custom-tailored interventions and monitored her progress.

That’s the power of TILLS!

Adam’s Story

Eight-year-old Adam was an active, sociable third-grader. In first AGE and second grade, he had received services for an articulation 8 disorder—not in itself a heightened risk for reading impairment. But still, Adam did struggle with reading and spelling, and through the beginning of third grade, he received response-to-intervention services to target reading fluency. Although his fluency scores improved, Adam continued to struggle with decoding and spelling. Adam was assessed with TILLS. To the right is his quadrant profile. Adam fell into the upper left quadrant, meaning he showed relatively intact oral language sentence/discourse-level abilities but struggled at the sound/word level, which interfered with his reading comprehension and written expression, lowering his written language sentence/discourse abilities as well. Here’s what his TILLS profile looked like.

(Key: DSB, Digit Span Backward; DSF, Digit Span Forward; DSR, Delayed Story Retelling; FD, Following Directions; LC, Listening Comprehension; NWRead, Nonword Reading; NWRep, Nonword Repetition; NWSpell, Nonword Spelling; PA, Phonemic Awareness; RC, Reading Comprehension; RF, Reading Fluency; SC, Social Communication; SR, Story Retelling; VA, Vocabulary Awareness; WE-Disc, Written Expression–Discourse Score; WE-Sent, Written Expression–Sentence Score; WE-Word, Written Expression–Word Score.)

From these results, Adam’s team was able to confirm his diagnosis of dyslexia. However, their school district, like most U.S. public school districts, used the term specific learning disability instead of dyslexia for qualifying children for special educational services. Although the term dyslexia wasn’t used officially, his assessment and planning team members used the term to help Adam and his parents understand the specific nature of his difficulties, explaining that dyslexia is a type of learning disability.

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After this diagnosis, what did Adam’s team do to help? First, the team looked at his scores on several TILLS subtests—especially Phonemic Awareness, Nonword Spelling, and Written Expression—and determined he would need explicit instruction to improve his understanding of phonics. Another concern was that Adam’s score for the Reading Comprehension subtest was almost 2 standard deviations below the mean, in contrast to his higher Listening Comprehension score (a discrepancy also consistent with the dyslexia diagnosis). The team decided that Adam’s difficulties on the Reading Comprehension subtest most likely reflected his weaknesses in phonics and reading decoding and not a general language comprehension problem. To improve his reading comprehension, Adam would need to improve his word structure knowledge, which would help him build word recognition skills.

Adam’s team planned to provide explicit intensive instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, reading decoding, and spelling. Adam’s SLP would keep working with him but shift her focus from articulation to teaching sound–symbol associations and decoding and spelling patterns. This would include teaching Adam to analyze the phonological and morphological structure of multisyllabic words. Adam’s SLP, learning disabilities resource room teacher, and general education teacher formed a study group to teach themselves more about word structure and discuss how to teach Adam and his classmates about the structure of words. The team also decided that Adam should have accommodations for the extra time he needed to ensure accurate decoding. They temporarily shifted his focus on reading fast to reading accurately, if more slowly.

weekly spelling tests. Instead, they emphasized understanding how word sounds and meanings relate to the way words look in print.

TILLS helped ensure that Adam didn’t slip through the cracks due to his improved fluency scores for familiar words, which masked his ongoing word recognition difficulties for unfamiliar words. The test uncovered challenges he still needed to work on, provided critical evidence for his dyslexia diagnosis, and identified areas of focus for Adam’s interventions.

That’s the power of TILLS!

Maria’s Story

Maria was an 11-year-old fifth grader whose mother had AGE concerns about her school performance, particularly in reading 11 and spelling. Maria’s mother and teacher both rated spelling as Maria’s lowest area on the Student Language Scale (SLS). Maria rated herself lowest in “understanding a story when reading.” Her TILLS profile is shown below:

TILLS confirmed Maria’s difficulties: her identification core composite was 26 (compared to 34, the cut score for her age group of 8- to 11-year-olds). Maria’s TILLS profile also shows she scored notably lower on the sound/word composite (standard score of 80), which is more than one standard deviation below the mean. But Maria also had many strengths. Consider her higher score on the sentence/discourse composite (standard score of 106), which is above the mean and within normal limits.

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This pattern is consistent with diagnosis of a language/literacy disorder—specifically dyslexia. It also was consistent with information gathered with the TILLS-SLS. Maria’s situation is similar to many other students who have dyslexia, but whose sentence- and discourse-level strengths mask their difficulties. In Maria’s case, she was able to use her unusually strong sentence comprehension abilities to perform above average on the Reading Comprehension and Listening Comprehension subtests. At the same time, Maria’s concerns about her reading comprehension difficulties needed to be taken seriously.

One obvious clue to explaining this apparent discrepancy came from Maria’s low scores on tasks requiring word-structure knowledge (i.e., Nonword Reading, Nonword Spelling, and the Written Expression–Word score). Such problems would interfere with figuring out new words in complex texts at a fifth grade level and above. The more surprising clue came from Maria’s difficulty on the Vocabulary Awareness subtest, particularly her lack of semantic flexibility in identifying a second pair of words after identifying the first pair. Semantic limitations could be contributing to her reading comprehension concerns. This has implications for intervention, suggesting a need to help Maria make connections between word structure and word meaning. For example, learning to parse words such as hypothermia into their morphemes (hypo = lower and thermia = referring to temperature) could help Maria with her spelling challenges. Rather than simply trying to memorize words, she could reconstruct them using her combined knowledge of word structure and word meaning.

To minimize frustration and maximize success, Maria needs to learn how to take advantage of her gifts and strengths while improving her word structure knowledge and semantic flexibility. The TILLS examiner made the following recommendations based on Maria’s test results:

The quadrant profile below sums up the strengths and weaknesses Maria demonstrated. Maria’s language/literacy difficulties may be confusing to her and others because they involve striking weaknesses in word structure knowledge, surrounded by strengths in sentence/discourse level skills in both oral and written language. This pattern is sometimes called “twice exceptional,” because it combines a pattern of disability with elements of giftedness.

• Due to her weakness in vocabulary (standard score of 6), Maria may benefit from intervention helping her to develop semantic flexibility along with word structure knowledge.

• Interventions should focus on helping Maria hear (and reproduce when spelling) the phonological structure of vocabulary words that are drawn from the general education curriculum, as well as to discuss their alternative possible meanings.

• Maria needs to develop strategies for spelling words not just from memory, but also based on analysis of their phonological and morphological structure.

• Because Maria has a low word score for the Written Expression subtest (standard score of 5), she needs to work on word structure knowledge in multiple contexts beyond traditional spelling list memorization.

• Maria has a gift for communicating through writing in a witty and clever way, and interventions should help her develop this gift further and celebrate it.

• Intervention should be provided by someone who is prepared to work with people with dyslexia and can help Maria put this highly specific challenge in perspective.

That’s the power of TILLS!

Robert’s Story

Robert was a 17-year-old tenth grader who had been diagnosed AGE with language impairment at 3 years of age. He’d been homes- 17 chooled for most of his life by his mother, who held credentials in teaching and special education. Robert’s mom wanted to know how his oral and written language skills compared to skills of typically developing students his age, so she had him tested with TILLS.

Robert’s TILLS results revealed evidence of an ongoing primary language disorder. To the right is his quadrant profile. Robert fell into the lower left quadrant, showing difficulties in both sound/ word and sentence/discourse skills, but with some areas of rela- tive strength at the sentence/discourse level (in Listening Compre- hension, Reading Comprehension, and Written Expression–Discourse).

Robert’s mother attributed his relatively higher scores on Listening Comprehension and Reading Comprehension to the work they’d done with a program targeting sight word recognition and listening and reading comprehension. But she was surprised to see Robert’s low scores on the Vocabulary Awareness, Phonemic Awareness, Nonword Repetition, Nonword Reading, Nonword Spelling, and Written Expression–Word score subtests. You can see these scores in Robert’s TILLS profile below:

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Robert’s TILLS results indicated that he still had progress to make. He needed to keep working on vocabulary and discourse-level meanings, especially in the oral modality and in following directions. Robert’s low scores on the Story Retelling and Social Communication subtests also pointed to sentence/discourse-level difficulties.

On the other hand, Robert’s sample from the Written Expression subtest was a bright spot, and more consistent with his higher scores in Listening Comprehension and Reading Comprehension. Robert’s writing sample (shown below) demonstrated that he’d grasped the central problem and facts in a story about an old building. (This was reflected in his above-average score for Written Expression–Discourse.)

There was a old building. No one knew how old it really was. There were no records on it. People did talk about it. It did have history to it. Some people knew is was used in a war long ago. It was used as a hospital for the Soldiers. There were hundred that were treated. But many died, and buried. The graves were still there behind the building. People did not really think about it a whole lot, mainly because it was hidden. They did not care about it. But then something happened. The city wanted the land for a new road. So the building would be demolished. But then people suddenly cared for that old building, and wrote articles, gave speeches and raised money. They saved the building with the grave yard. They also saved something else. It was their history that was really important.

Knowing that Robert had relatively strong written expression skills helped his mother formulate a plan. She had him write about his curricular assignments to help him solidify his knowledge about word meaning and structure. This strategy would help him achieve Grade 11–12 Common Core curricular standards: To write informative and explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

That’s the power of TILLS!

Robert’s situation illustrates how important it is to take a step back occasionally and recognize the big picture when you work closely with a student for many years. TILLS helped Robert’s teacher-mother do just that, providing the clear and comprehensive picture her own assessments missed. The test highlighted not only Robert’s remaining areas of need, but also specific strengths that she could capitalize on when designing successful interventions for him.

Subtests SUBTEST 1: VOCABULARY AWARENESS

Subtests

Materials Stimulus Book (pp. 2–28), Examiner Record form (pp. 2–4) In this section, you’ll get a concise introduction to each of the 15 TILLS subtests. You’ll learn Directions Open the Stimulus Book to page 2. Say, “Here are three words. Let’s read them together.” (Reading in unison is allowed but not required.) “dog–cat–bone” the purpose of each subtest, get a brief description of the tasks you’ll administer, and preview Say, “Tell me two words that go together.” Then ask, “Why?” Probing is allowed for practice items: If the student’s response to “Why?” on either practice item is not a good/primary/dominant a sample item that helps illustrate how each subtest works. reason, say, “Can you think of a better reason to put dog and cat [or dog and bone] together?” If the student still does not give an appropriate answer, probe, “Do you think they are both animals [or dogs like bones]? How about that for a reason? Now can

SUBTEST 1

Probes Probe for more elaborate answers only if the student says “mean the same thing.” Ask, “Can you tell me what they mean?” If the student refers to spelling, coach him/her to focus on meaning (rather than what the words look like). If the student gives a meaning that applies to Vocabulary Awarenessall three words, probe for how the two chosen words go together in a way that the third one does not. Otherwise, just ask for pairings and rationale (no further probing about meaning is allowed), and record the student’s initial response. If the student revises spontaneously, score

"don't know" next to the word). A general prompt also may be used to tell the student that it is okay to guess or say, "I don't know." Purpose: Repetition To assess a student’s lexical knowledge, awareness of semantic relationships, and Reread item triplets as necessary if the student has difficulty reading. Be careful not to give prosody cues while reading. Start rule Arrows with age ranges in years indicate start points. cognitive-linguistic flexibility. Basal rule Basal is reached when the student achieves 4 consecutive Total Item Scores of 2. If the student does not reach the criterion for basal

Task: Ceiling ruleThe student must be able to first identify a pair of semanticallyDiscontinue when the student scores 0 on the Total Item Scorte for 6 out of 8 consecutive items. When counting 0s toward the related words from a triplet of three words, and ceiling, count in the Total Item Score column on the far right. then switch sets to identify a second semantic pairing. To administer the subtest, you’ll show a student three printed Recording and • IMPORTANT: Be sure to score parts a AND b for each item. words while reading them out loud. For each set of words, you’ll ask the student to identify two words that go scoring • Circle the response pairs the student gives. The order of pairs does not matter. • For each pair, circle the student’s reason, or write in a reason that is not listed. together and tell why; then you’ll ask the student to identify another two words from the same three-word set that go • Score 1 for each correct pair and reason (must get both pair and reason correct to score). Note that answers provided are not the only acceptable answers. together in a different way and explain why. The student must give you both pairs and reasons why to get full credit. • Score 0 for each incorrect pair and/or reason or if the student says, "I don't know that word." • Record the total score (0–2) for each item pair (a 1 b) in the Total column on the right.

Sample Items:Practice Items

bone Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills™ (TILLS™), Standardization Version 2 by Nickola Wolf Nelson, Ph.D.,

2 Excerpted with adaptations from the TILLS™ Examiner’s Manual, and the Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills™ (TILLS™) by Nickola Wolf Nelson, Ph.D., Elena Plante, Ph.D., Nancy Helm-Estabrooks, Sc.D., and Gillian Hotz, Ph.D.
Copyright © 2016 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. All rights reserved. 10/19/11 7:37:40 AM

Reinforce practice items as appropriate. Provide coaching if necessary using auditory stimuli only. Do not use writing and spelling when coaching. Say, “Any questions?” (Answer.) “Let’s begin.” Use the pattern “[test item] becomes [student response].” Phonemic AwarenessProbes Use hesitating and coaching as needed only during practice; when administering the test items, do not remind the student to remove only the first sound if the student reverts to a pattern of removing the full consonant cluster during testing.

Repetition Do not repeat the stimuli unless ambient noise interferes. If the student requests a repetition, say, “Sorry, I can’t repeat these,” Purpose: To assess a student’s awareness of the individual units of sound that make up spoencourage a guess, record the response, and move on.- Start rule Arrows with age ranges in years indicate start points. ken words (phonemes). Students struggling with phonemic awareness may have academic Basal rule Basal is reached when the student achieves 6 consecutive scores of 1. If the student does not reach the criterion for basal when testing difficulty with decoding, fluency, and spelling.forward from the start point, test backward immediately to establish basal (or to reach item 1) prior to testing forward to the ceiling. Ceiling rule Discontinue when the student scores 0 on 6 out of 8 items.

Recording and • Score 1 if the student accurately produces all (and only) the remaining sounds in the word (after removing only the initial Task: scoringYou’ll say a “pretend word” such as “bip” or “stig” and ask the student to say the word back to you without phoneme). If the student is unable to perform the task with the practice items even after additional coaching, administer the test items starting with item 1 regardless of the student's age and test until the ceiling is reached. the first sound. To complete this task, students must have a concept of individual speech sounds (phonemes), and • Score 0 if the response does not match the model, and record the student’s exact response using either traditional orthography they must be able to isolate the initial sounds of words in order to remove them. (alphabetic letters) or phonetic transcription. • IMPORTANT: If the student uses a consistent pattern of misarticulation or regional vowel pronunciation in spontaneous

Sample Items: Practice Items

5. gilf ➝ ilf Story Retelling

6. flig ➝ lig

7. lekel ➝ ekel /lεkəl/ ➝ /εkəl/ Purpose: To assess a student’s ability to listen to, comprehend, and retell a story. Narratives 0 1 8–14 8. krit ➝ rit /kr t/ ➝ /r t/ are an important part of academic subjects like language arts and history, and they’re also 9. swog ➝ wog /swɔ / ➝/wɔ / 0 1 central to social interactions.10. treeg ➝ reeg /tri/ ➝/ri/ 0 1

Sample Items: Test examiners will select the age-appropriate story and follow the directions for that story.

151 Task: You’ll ask the student to listen carefully while you read an age-appropriate story (two different stories are pro0 1 - 12. glem ➝ lem /lεm/ ➝ /lεm/ vided, one for ages 6 through 11 years and one for ages 12 through 18 years). The student’s job is to tell the story 13. hidot ➝idot /hɑ¯ $ $dɑt/ ➝ /ɑ¯ $ $dɑt/ 0 1 back to you in the same way. Students earn credit for including the content units from the original story as they retell it. After the student finishes retelling, you’ll ask four questions to assess comprehension of key events or relationships and inferential information. Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills™ (TILLS™), Standardization Version 2 by Nickola Wolf Nelson, Ph.D., Elena Plante, Ph.D., Nancy Helm-Estabrooks, Sc.D., and Gillian Hotz, Ph.D. Copyright © 2015 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. All rights reserved. N

Story A: “Tommy the Trickster” for students ages 6;0–11;11 (33 content units)

Excerpted with adaptations from the TILLS™ Examiner’s Manual, and the Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills™ (TILLS™) by Nickola Wolf Nelson, Ph.D., Elena Plante, Ph.D., Nancy Helm-Estabrooks, Sc.D., and Gillian Hotz, Ph.D.
Copyright © 2016 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. All rights reserved.

Story B: “The Rubber Raft” for students ages 12;0–18;11 (51 content units)

SUBTEST 4

Nonword Repetition

SUBTEST 4: NONWORD REPETITION Purpose:MaterialsTo assess a student’s speech perception, the ability to hold a sequence of speech Digital audio player and digital audio files (Track 2 through Track 28); audio recording device (recommended); Examiner Record Form (pp. 11-12) sounds in memory, and the ability to reproduce those speech sound (phonological) sequences Directions Say, “I am going to play a voice recording for you. The person on the recording will say a pretend word that is not a real word. You will only hear the word once. Listen carefully so you can say the word just like the person you hear.” accurately. TILLS uses nonwords that are orthographically similar to English, to give you Say, “Any questions?” (Answer.) “Let’s begin.” Start playing the digital audio files and begin recording the student's Start the CD. responses. Pause the recording between tracks if you need more time to record any changes the student makes from the intended response. information about your student’s morphological and orthographic knowledge. Probes None

Task: You’ll play a digital recording of a person pronouncing a set of nonwords. Each nonword is presented within Start rule Start at beginning for all students. Basal rule No basal required; all students start with item 1. a phrase requesting that the student repeat them; for example, “Say glapped” or “Say interpidable.” Responses are Ceiling rule Discontinue when the student scores 0 on 6 out of 8 items. scored incorrect if the student makes any deviations from the stimulus words that can’t be attributed to consistent Recording and • Record the student’s response by marking any variations (additions, deletions, or substitutions) not allowed on the scoring form. misarticulations or dialectal pronunciations. scoring • Score 1 if the student’s repetition meets scoring guidelines. Score 0 if the student’s production does not match a variant on the scoring form. (Do not penalize misarticulation of a phoneme if it is consistent with a student’s spontaneous speech.)

Sample Items: Practice Items

Subtests 4 and 5 are the first of several subtest sets that are parallel to each other, where the Item variable that changes is the modality. In this case, Child’s written response Subtest 4 focuses on listening and Subtest 5

focuses on writing. Since the subtests are co-stam /s t  m/ normed, you can make effective comparisons of the student’s performance on each.

SUBTEST SUBTEST 5: NONWORD SPELLING 5 Student Book (p. 2), digital audio player, and digital recording (Track 29 through Track 55)

/  d/ Nonword Spelling___________________ 2. stenders /s t ε n d ə z/ /s t  n d ə z/

Student Book (p. 2), digital audio player, and digital recording (Track 29 through Track 55) Say, “I am going to play another voice recording of pretend words. These are the same words you said before. This time Purpose: To assess a student’s ability to represent phonemic and morphemic components of

your job is to spell the words on this page [point to Student Book]. 3. vilding Remember, these are not real words, but they are like 0 real 1 11. scroil 0 1 /v  l d  ŋ/ /s k r ɔ l/ words. So, use what you know about words to spell these pretend words the best you can. There are two for practice.” novel spoken words by spelling them with conventional orthographic (letter sequence) patterns. Start the CD. Pause after each practice item and coach as necessary.

Task: You'll ask students to listen to another audio recording of "pretend words." Tell them that these are the same pretend words they said before in the Nonword Repetition subtest. Remind the students that although these are not real words, they should spell them using what they know about real words. (When you score the students' responses, give credit for multiple spellings, based on the rule that comparable spellings must exist for real words.)

Sample Items:

Example of Student Response 15. smitchly /s m  tʃ l i/

SUBTEST 6

Materials Examiner Record Form (pp. 15-16) Listening ComprehensionNote: Subtest 6, Listening Comprehension, should immediately precede Subtest 7, Reading Comprehension, and both should be given in the same session.

each story. Tell me ‘yes’ if you are sure the answer is ‘yes.’ Tell me ‘no’ if you are sure the answer is ‘no.’ If the story doesn’t Purpose: To assess a student’s ability to comprehend the complex syntax of academicclearly tell you the answer, tell me ‘maybe.’ Some stories will not have all three kinds of answers—yes, no, and maybe. Here’s one for practice.” Read Practice Item. Coach “maybe” for Practice Item c, if needed, by asking “Are you sure Teresa does/ language and to draw inferences allowed by the text.does not have a dog? The story didn't really tell us the answer.” Say, “Any questions?” (Answer.) “Let’s begin.” Probes Do not define the words. If the student indicates non-understanding, say, “It’s okay to take a guess.”

Repetition Repetition is not allowed except for the practice story. You may repeat a portion of the stimulus only if ambient noise interferes. Task: You’ll ask students to listen to some very short stories and answer questions about them. The language Start rule Arrows with age ranges in years indicate start points. in these stories purposefully uses complex sentence structures similar to academic language. Direct students to Basal rule Basal is reached when the student achieves 2 consecutive stories where all 3 items are correct. If the student does not reach the criterion for basal when testing forward from the start point, test backward immediately to establish basal prior to testing forward to answer “yes” if they’re sure the answer is yes, “no” if they’re sure the answer is no, and “maybe” if the story doesn’t the ceiling. clearly tell them the answer. The use of “maybe” as a correct answer is one way to assess your student’s metalinCeiling rule Discontinue when the student misses all 3 items for 2 consecutive stories.- guistic ability; it shows “Can the student consider whether they don’ Recording and • Circle Y if the child answers “yes.” Circle N if the child answers “no.” t have enough information to know?” Circle M if the child answers “maybe.” scoring • Score 1 if the child’s response matches the answer shown in parentheses. Score 0 if it does not.

Sample Items:Practice Item

Subtests 6 and 7 are also parallel tasks where the modality changes from listening to reading. 1. The guy who makes the pizza crust can toss it in the air and catch it, but last night he had a little accident. He ended up with pizza dough hanging over his head.

c. Did he ruin some crust last night? Reading Comprehension 1212. Cassandra sat on the couch and got ready to watch the movie she liked best while her babysitter went into the kitchen

popcorn instead. Cassandra exclaimed, “I didn’t know you could make caramel popcorn. Caramel is my favorite!” Purpose: To assess a student’s reading comprehension. (This test is designed to be admina. Did Cassandra help make popcorn? Y (N) M 0 1 istered right after the Listening Comprehension subtest so the results of the two tests can be b. Was Cassandra getting ready to watch her favorite movie? (Y) N M 0 1 compared directly.)c. Had Cassandra asked her babysitter to make caramel popcorn? Y (N) M 0 1

Task: The student will be shown stories like the ones he or she has just heard—but now, it is the student’s turn to 3. The class did not understand the teacher’s directions when she first told them how to complete the science project. When she showed them what to do step by step, however, the instructions made more sense. read the stories. As before, they’ll answer “yes,” “no,” or “maybe” to questions about the story. a. Did all of the students understand the directions after the teacher’s demonstration? Y N (M) 0 1

b. Did the students know what to do at first? Sample Items: c. Did the class complete the assignment?

1. “One morning Susan got up too late to catch the school bus. She thought that she would be late for school, but her mother got her there on time.”

SUBTEST 8

Following Directions

SUBTEST 8: FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS Purpose: To measure the ability to listen to a sequence of directions, to understand them, Materials Student Book (pp. 4–6), Examiner Record Form (pp. 19-20), laminated card

and to hold them in short-term memory long enough verbal working memory is an area of interest when ass

carry them out. Because auditory issing for language/literacy disorder,

with your pencil in your Student Book. Listen carefully because I can only say them once. When I say ‘Go,’ move the card this task was intentionally designed without visual supports for the auditory stimuli. This also and use your pencil to follow the directions exactly as I told you.”

this task was intentionally designed without visual supports for the auditory stimuli. This also and use your pencil to follow the directions exactly as I told you.” “We will try two for practice.” Say, “Practice number 1: Cross out the circle. Go.” Proceed to practice number 2. prevents visual rehearsal, providing a more accurate look at performance that mimics listening Say, “Any questions?” (Answer.) “Let’s begin.” to classroom directions.Continue to cover the stimulus items while the child listens to the directions for each item. Probes None

without visual supports for the auditory stimuli. This also “We will try two for practice.” Say, “Practice number 1: Cross out the circle. Go.” Proceed to practice number 2. prevents visual rehearsal, providing a more accurate look at performance that mimics listening Continue to cover the stimulus items while the child listens to the directions for each item.

to classroom directions.Probes None Repetition You may repeat the stimuli only if ambient noise interferes with reception.

Task: You'll the student oral instructions related to a set of graphic symbols that are covered up at the beginning of the task. Then ask student to move the card covering the symbols when you say "Go," recall your oral instructions, and carry them out by marking the corresponding graphic items on the Student Response Form. Having students record their answers on the Student Response Form ensures that you don't have to remember their responses (a difficulty with other tests' "following directions" tasks that can impact scoring accuracy).

Sample Items: Practice Items

0 lock. Go Sample Items: Test examiners will select the age-appropriate story and follow the directions for that story.

6–9 Number 1: Draw a circle around the heart. Go. Delayed Story Retelling Number 2: Cross out the lion and circle the star. Go.

Purpose: To measure retention of narrative information over a period of 15 to 20 minutes Number 3: Draw a line from the top of the tree to the 0 1 (a measure of long-term memory). bottom of the light bulb. Go.

Number 4: Draw hair on the sad face and put a nose Task: You should administer the Delayed Story Retelling 15–20 minutes after administration of the Story Retelling 0 1 on the happy face. Go. subtest. Ask the student to remember the story used previously, giving the title of the appropriate story (“Tommy the 5\TILY!>OLU`V\OH]LÄUPZOLKJPYJSPUNHSS[OL1 or 2 1 or 2 3 Trickster” for younger students or “The Rubber Raft” for older students). Then ask the student to simply remember 10–14 stars, cross out the square. Go. [Sequence] 0 1 [Say, “Turn the page.”] and retell as much as possible. If the student hesitates, say “just tell me anything you remember.”

Story A: “Tommy the Trickster” for students ages 6;0–11;11 (33 content units)

Story B: “The Rubber Raft” for students ages 12;0–18;11 ( Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills™ (TILLS™), Standardization Version 2 51 content units) by Nickola Wolf Nelson, Ph.D., Elena Plante, Ph.D., Nancy Helm-Estabrooks, Sc.D., and Gillian Hotz, Ph.D. Copyright © 2015 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. All rights reserved.

Say, “Here are some words for you to read aloud.” [Indicate practice words on page 29 of Stimulus Book.] “These are pretend words that are not real words, but they are like real words. Your job is to read these words aloud. My job is to write what you say, so wait until I say ‘Next’ before you read the next word. Here are two for practice.” Say, “Any questions?” (Answer.) “Let’s Nonword Readingbegin.” Probe If a response has not been provided after 5 seconds, say, “Give it a try.” If no attempt at a response is made, record 0 for that item

Repetition Not applicable Purpose: To assess a student’s ability to decode novel words that are not recognizable as real Start rule Arrows with age ranges in years indicate start points. Basal rulewords. Basal is reached when the student achieves 6 consecutive scores of 1. If the student does not reach the criterion for basal when testing forward from the start point, test backward immediately (having child read from the top of the prior page) to establish basal

prior to testing forward to the ceiling. Ceiling ruleTask: You’ll ask students to read and pronounce a set of printed nonwords on a page in the Stimulus Book. The Discontinue when the student scores 0 on 6 out of 8 items. Recording and stimuli for Nonword Reading are similar to the words from the Nonword Repetition and Nonword Spelling subtests, • Circle 1 if the student correctly produces the word or one of the acceptable alternatives shown on the scoring sheet. scoring • Score 0 if the student makes any changes in the word other than those allowed and record the student’s exact response in the but not identical. Some assess awareness of how to decode particular patterns, such as the long vowel “silent e space provided using traditional orthography or phonetic spelling. • Record changes in syllable stress for qualitative analysis but do not consider stress variation when judging correctness. rule” in dape, or the “double consonant short vowel” rule in shiggle• The goal in this test is to credit accurate decoding (which may not be fluent.decoding), so score the student's final attempt. • Do not penalize consistent misarticulations or regional vowel pronunciations.

Sample Items: Practice Items

6–7 1. pog 0 Reading Fluency/pɔ/ /pɑ/

11–13 7. mistation Purpose: 2. keb To assess automatic word recognition and the accuracy of reading ability at the word ___________ 0 1 ___________ 0 1 /kεb/ /ms te Sən/ level. Reading Fluency is distinguished from Nonword Reading in three ways: 1) the Reading Fluency subtest uses real words, 2) the real words are in sentence contexts, and 3) the student 3. troom ___________ 8. steeg ___________ 0 1 0 1 [Turn the page.] /trum/ /sti/ must read the words not just accurately but also fluently to receive credit.

Elena Plante, Ph.D., Nancy Helm-Estabrooks, Sc.D., and Gillian Hotz, Ph.D. Copyright © 2015 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. All rights reserved. Sample Items:

SUBTEST 12

Written Expression

Purpose: To observe the student’s written expression skills at both sound/word and sentence/ discourse levels. This subtest provides three scores that examine three different aspects of writing—a discourse score, a sentence score, and a word score.

Task: To administer the Written Expression subtest, you’ll begin by showing the student a sample set of story facts in the Stimulus Book. Read the facts and then comment on the story being okay, but kind of “choppy.” Show an example on the Student Response Form of how you could put the facts together in a way that sounds more interesting and less choppy. Then, you’ll turn to the story with the facts the student read aloud in the Reading Fluency task. If the student showed any difficulty reading the words on the Reading Fluency task, read them out loud for the student. Finally, you’ll ask the student to rewrite the story, putting the facts together in a way that sounds less choppy and more interesting.

Example of a student’s written response:

SUBTEST 13

Sample Items:

Repetition You may reread any item. Purpose:Start ruleTo assess the ability to understand language describing social situations, and to Arrows with age ranges in years indicate start points. formulate responses that fit the social context. Basal rule Basal is reached when the student scores 1 on the Item Score (not just subcomponents) of 6 consecutive scenarios. If the student does not reach the criterion for basal when testing forward from the start point, test backward immediately to establish basal prior to

Task: Ceiling ruleTo administer this subtest, you’ll tell the student that this activity is about acting a scene, like from a TV show Discontinue when the student scores 0 on the Item Score (not just subcomponent scores) of 6 out of 8 items. or a movie. You’ll give the student a short scene and then ask what one of the people in the scene would say. Recording and Record the student’s response verbatim in the space provided. . Vocabulary score To earn credit, students must demonstrate both that they understand vocabulary that describes communicative Score 1 if the student conveys meaning of the key vocabulary in the answer they formulate.. Score 0 if the student does not capture the meaning. intention, such as whines, brags, argues, criticizes, and politely turns down, and be able to convey the appropriate . Pragmatics score Score 1 if the student communicates the social intent through appropriate phrasing and prosody for the social context (i.e., do intonation in their responses.not penalize shyness) Score 0 if the student does not convey the communicative intent.

SUBTEST 14

Directions Say, “I am going to say some numbers. Listen to the numbers, and when I finish, you say them back to me exactly the same way.” (Note: It is important to say the numbers at a rate of one per second in a neutral voice with even and equal stress.) “Here is one for practice: 4–2.” If the student does not say “4–2,” provide coaching and give this example: 8–6. Digit Span Forward Probes

Repetition You may repeat the stimulus items only if ambient noise interferes with reception. Purpose: Start rule To measure attention and short-term memory. Arrows with age ranges in years indicate start points.

reach the criterion for basal when testing forward from the start point, test backward immediately to establish basal prior to testing Task: Administer the subtest by asking the student to listen to a series of numbers (spoken at the rate of one per forward to the ceiling. second) and then repeat the numbers exactly as you said them. The number series become longer as the subtest Ceiling rule Stop testing if the student misses all items at a particular level. Recording and • for incorrect each correct sequence. progresses. scoring • Score Score 10 point for each sequence.

Sample Items: Practice Items

SUBTEST 15

^{\ \ }4-2^{\ }}

^{\ \ }8{6}{6}{}

Directions 4c. “6–4–9–7–2–8” Say, “I am going to say some numbers again. Listen carefully like before, but this time, when I finish, you say them back to me in 0 1 backward order. Here’s one for practice. 4-2.” If the student does not say “2-4,” provide coaching. Then give the second example: 8-6. Digit Span Backward Qualitative observations: Say, “Here are the first test numbers. Are you ready?” Answer any questions before starting. Remember to present the numbers

Probes None Purpose: Repetition To assess auditory verbal working memory. This subtest has reduced language load You may repeat the stimulus items only if ambient noise interferes with reception. Start rule Arrows with age ranges in years indicate start points. in comparison to the Following Directions and Story Retell subtests Basal rule Basal is reached when the student achieves a score of 1 on all items at a particular level (a and b [and c]). If the student does not reach the criterion for basal when testing forward from the start point, test backward immediately to establish basal prior to testing

forward to the ceiling. Task: Ceiling ruleAsk the student to listen again to a series of numbers (spoken at a rate of one per second). This time, ask them Stop testing if the student misses all items at a particular level. to repeat the numbers in backward order. As before, the number series become longer as the subtest progresses. Recording and • Score 1 point for each correct reverse sequence. scoring • Score 0 for each incorrect reverse sequence.

Sample Items: Practice Items

Excerpted with adaptations from the TILLS™ Examiner’s Manual, and the Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills™ (TILLS™) by Nickola Wolf Nelson, Ph.D., ________________ Elena Plante, Ph.D., Nancy Helm-Estabrooks, Sc.D., and Gillian Hotz, Ph.D. 2b. “8–2–5–1” 0 1 5a. (1–5–2–8) Copyright © 2016 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. All rights reserved.

Top 5 Questions about TILLS

1. Does TILLS measure expressive & receptive language?

Yes, but it doesn’t give you separate scores that are broken down in this way, for two reasons. First, research does not support subtypes of receptive and expressive language disorders that vary along this dimension (note the removal of these subcategories from DSM-5). Second, any language assessment task requires at least some integration of language input and output, so to offer separate scores would be artificial. 2. How can I use TILLS results to inform instruction and intervention?

The TILLS Examiner’s Manual provides case studies that illustrate the progression

case studies that illustrate the progression from TILLS test scores to curricular considerations. Note that TILLS subtests are curriculum relevant, meaning they reflect the language demands of the curriculum. To be curriculum based, assessment must be performed using the student’s actual curricular materials and applying informal assessment methods, such as targeted probes (e.g., oral or written language samples) and dynamic assessment procedures (i.e., involving a

assessment procedures (i.e., involving a sequence of test-teach-retest).

3. Can you compare the results of the subtests?

Yes. All of the TILLS subtests were normed on the same population of students, so you can compare results from different subtests and know that the results are psychometrically sound.

4. Should you always give a student the entire assessment each time?

You may administer single subtests or combinations of them as well as the entire test. We do recommend administration of all TILLS subtests to develop a comprehensive profile of a student’s relative strengths and weaknesses. You should be able to administer all 15 subtests to most students in one 70- to 90-minute session or two 45-minute sessions. If shorter sessions are required, they should be completed in no more than 4 weeks.

TILLS can be administered by any professional who has received training on working with children and adolescents with disabilities and administering and scoring individualized standardized assessments. This includes speech-language pathologists, special educators, reading specialists, learning disability specialists, neuropsychologists, and educational psychologists. www.tillstest.com | 1-800-638-3775

If you only want to determine if a student has a disorder, you would only need to administer the subtests that identify language and literacy disorders in children your student’s age. For tracking change in a particular skill area, you may wish to administer only subtests that relate to that skill area. (Ten of the subtests can be given

5. Who can administer TILLS?

Get TILLS Training

In-person training

Led by Michele Anderson, Ph.D., CCC-SLP and/or Nickola W. Nelson, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

Get step-by-step training in administering and scoring the subtests, conducting TILLS in a time-efficient way, and using TILLS to identify disorders. You can also choose from a list of other topics for the speakers to cover. For a one-day seminar, choose two of the following modules to round out your session; for a two-day seminar, select 4-6 modules.

• Exploring specific student profiles in more depth (e.g., dyslexia)
• Progressing from the TILLS profile to intervention decisions
• Using TILLS district-wide, or for tracking student changes over time
• Understanding the quadrant model, psychometric properties of the TILLS, or research uses
• Using TILLS with special populations such as students with autism
• Gathering multiple perspectives from teachers, parents, students, or others using the SLS

Learn more: http://www.brookespublishing.com/tills-training

Virtual training

Contact Dr. Michele Anderson at manderson@brookespublishing.com to inquire about virtual training opportunities available before or after purchasing TILLS.

Visit the TILLS website

At your TILLS online resource center, you can:

• Watch an introductory TILLS video
• View free webinars on topics like identifying dyslexia and using the SLS
• Read a Q&A with the TILLS developers
• Download a technical excerpt
• Find answers to your TILLS questions with FAQs
• and more! 1-800-638-3775 | www.tillstest.com**Get your TILLS resources today: https://tillstest.com**

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speech-language pathologist.”

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