Overview
The Arizona Articulation and Phonology Scale, Fourth Revision (Arizona™-4) provides a quick, reliable, well-standardised measure of articulation and phonology to help clinicians identify individuals in need of speech sound services and develop treatment plans.
Suitable for
18 months to 21 years
Product Description
The Arizona-4 measures speech intelligibility, articulatory impairment, and phonological impairment in one quick, easy to use assessment. The fourth revision of this widely used assessment retains the strengths of its predecessors and adds features that enhance its effectiveness in identifying individuals who have speech sound disorders. New norms, refined measurement properties, and the addition of connected-speech and phonology tests help clinicians identify individuals who may benefit from speech sound services. Supplemental qualitative tasks facilitate deeper interpretation of the scores and help clinicians develop treatment plans that are targeted to the individual’s needs.
The Arizona-4 can be used by speech and language professionals in a variety of settings, including schools, clinics, hospitals, private practices, and intervention programmes. Its applications include:
- Understanding and describing an individual’s level of articulatory ability and overall speech intelligibility in both single-word and connected speech.
- Comparing single-word and connected-speech articulatory abilities.
- Determining the extent to which phonological impairment may contribute to an individual’s articulatory deficits, and describing the specific types of phonological error patterns that are displayed.
- Facilitating early identification of speech-sound development concerns and determining whether an individual may benefit from treatment services.
- Identifying and prioritising speech targets for individualised intervention through analysis of the examinee’s specific articulatory/phonological deficits and relative strengths, including the production of consonants, consonant blends, and vowels.
- Monitoring improvement in an individual’s speech sound production over time.
- Evaluating the degree of consistency in an individual’s production of misarticulated sounds, the impact of speech sound deficits in continuous language and everyday speech, and the need for further language assessment or intervention.
What’s new in the Arizona-4?
- Three tests in one assessment: Word Articulation, Sentence Articulation, and Phonology
- All-new normative data
- Extension of the standardised age range to 21 years, 11 months, with guidance for describing and understanding the speech of adults of all ages
- Modified scoring system for more effective identification of individuals with speech sound disorders
- Five optional tasks that inform treatment plan development
- Scoring guidance for dialectal variations
- Full-colour illustrations that are more engaging for young children
- Digital stimulus images
Norms
The Arizona-4 was standardised on a US representative sample of 3,192 children, adolescents, and young adults, aged 1 year, 6 months through 21 years, 11 months. This sample was stratified to match US Census data with respect to gender, race/ethnicity, parents' educational level, and geographic region. A clinical validation sample was also collected, consisting of 50 individuals who had a diagnosis of a speech sound disorder (articulation and/or phonological disorder) and were receiving treatment services.
The Arizona-4 has strong internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and interrater reliability, supporting the stability of Arizona-4 results within tests, over time, and across examiners.
Duration
5-20 minutes
Release Note
2017