Stage 5 Grammar Tracker

Grammar getting complicated? I hear you! Once those infinitives get involved, it can get dicey.

These trackers are part of a set of tools I developed for:

• visually organizing your data collection

• planning for therapy sessions or your modeling targets

• helping parents and other stakeholders ‘see’ what their child has achieved and what is coming next

• keeping informal longitudinal data on acquisition patterns

Please note: Crescendo Communication trackers are not to be used for diagnosis, formal scoring, training in a particular program/framework, or prescriptivist applications of theory. They are not comprehensive trackers for all elements of language. Instead, they are visual methods that draw from qualitative and clinical research to support clinical analysis - not define it. For example, the DSS-informed tracker and the Brown’s-informed tracker provide conflicting information about acquisition patterns because of their different original samples. This highlights the importance of clinical interpretation within the context of the child, their unique neural process of language acquisition, and the trajectory of language intervention that is most relevant and affirming to their goals, needs, and quality of life.

For DSS-informed trackers: The presented levels are an expansion of the DSS chart provided in the literature to more clearly guide stakeholders. These are not comprehensive categories, but provide a wider array of constructions with a particular emphasis on pronoun agreements. There is no formal research to support my use of 3 generative utterances across 3 separate sessions as a marker of true acquisition. This is the method I have found in my own basic longitudinal work to create a balance between limited documentation time and ensuring quality exemplars with their dates of generation. This method also allows you to engage in informal longitudinal tracking of element acquisition. As my research evolves, the number of exemplars recommended for the tool may change.

Caution is advised in using any method or program as a one-size-fits-all approach to supporting and tracking children’s progress, including NLA. Best practice is individualized and not necessarily program-specific. Tools and approaches should be chosen - and modified - for each client depending on their specific needs and case details.

To access more formal training and information to best apply these tools to your work, please see the citations or reach out to us to be directed towards resources.