CELF Preschool tests

[Mumtoprem]

We have just received the results of our daughter's CELF tests but am unsure how to interpret them and if we have any chance of getting a statement. Can anyone help us with this?

Her results were:

Sentence structure:

Raw score 9 Standard Score 5 Percentile rank 5

Formulating labels:

Raw score 2 Standard score 3 Percentile rank 1

Thanks,
Michelle

Mumtoprem, I can explain the percentile rank. They are quite low scores. At a score of 5, if you tested 100 children, 95 would score higher and 5 lower, for a score of 1, 99 would score higher, 1 lower. So in the bottom 5% and the bottom 1%. Children scoring in the bottom 2% academically should be able to get a statement, generally, so sort of good news... How old is your DD?

Thanks so much for your reply - really helpful.

Our daughter is 3.5 and is due to start school in September. She was born prematurely and has had a lot of involvement with the hospital since birth.

We are really struggling to get the request for statutory assessment done as nursery and educational psychologist are faffing and I keep being told she is borderline in terms of qualifying for statutory assessment.

Michelle

Just lost a long reply! 2% of children have statements, just not necessarily the lowest 2% academically, depends on their SN. Have a look at the SEN code of practice links to documents further down the page. Still current law, although this government has a new policy going through, will take more than a year or so. Bedtime reading but very useful.

The sentence structure section of CELF obviously looks at how she constructs sentences expressively. It looks at grammar as far as I remember (I'm an SLT but currently work with older kids so don't use the preschool CELF anymore).

The formulating labels section looks at naming things but it's not very extensive. You'd be well off to get more tests done - is that all your SLT did? I'd need more info.

Because her vocab (naming) os at the first centile, this is significantly below her general ability to express herself - so I'd say it's a specific area of weakness but overall her language skills are severely delayed for her age (I say severely because that's the terminology rather than to be alarmist).

You need to have her assessed on a WISC (cognitive test) to see whether her cognitive abilities match the language scores. If they are significantly higher then it's a specific language difficulty and if they're broadly in line then it's a generalised learning difficulty.

I'd pay for an independent EP report if you can possibly afford it. The local authority should not be gaffing about and wasting your daughter's precious time.

If you can't afford the private assessment, start complaining loudly to anyone who will listen, including the head of department and your MP. As far as I can see, she clearly meets requirements for extra help.

Unfortunately, a private EP report is not possible at the moment due to finances. The EP thought she was borderline and should stay on Early Years Action Plus for school instead of getting a statement. We then had to wait ages to see SALT and then our usual SLT went on long-term sick so we have just seen a locum SLT so not good all round.

Now the nursery are preparing the paperwork for requesting statutory assessment but won't be getting submitted until end of Feb. It just feels everything is taking so long considering we started this process in October and we haven't even submitted the inital request.

Daughter is age appropriate cognitively according to EP and it is thought she has specific language impairment.

Michelle

Well then it's quite a severe language impairment at this stage.

What are you getting for your 'school action plus'?

What is your SLT doing to help?

Ten years ago your daughter would have been given a short term place in a language unit or nursery with special focus on language for as long as needed. I used to for in one. They closed them down in order to 'mainstream' everyone.