Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills Tills Student Rating Scale

For use with the Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills™ (TILLS™), other assessments, or on its own, the TILLS Student Language Scale is a simple, cost-effective way to screen for language and literacy disorders, including dyslexia. This quick and easy 12-question screener is filled out by parents, teachers, and students to show each party's perspective on how the student is performing on academic tasks as compared to their same-age peers.

The SLS helps you:

• Screen for language/literacy disorders such as dyslexia by gathering teachers' and parents' ratings of students. When teachers or parents rate more than two areas on items 1-8 less than 5, SLS results indicate the student is at risk and needs further assessment with TILLS. (Sensitivity and specificity are strong: sensitivity is .90 for teachers and .85 for parents, and specificity is .90 for teachers and .83 for parents.)
• 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

Sold in a pack of 50, the Student Language Scale is also included in the TILLS Examiner's Kit. It can also be used as a standalone tool to gather valuable information about a student, or used with other assessments of student performance and potential.

Nickola Wolf Nelson, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, BCS-CL, is Professor Emerita in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences and former Director of the Ph.D. program in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences at Western Michigan University. She is author of the book Language and Literacy Disorders: Infancy Through Adolescence, and first author of the Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills (TILLS), as well as editor-in-chief of the journal, Topics in Language Disorders. Dr. Nelson's research and publications focus on curriculum-based language and literacy assessment and intervention.

Michele A. Anderson, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is an assistant professor at Western Michigan University. She was instrumental in coordinating the national validation studies for the Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills (TILLS) under the direction of Dr. Nickola Nelson and serves as TILLS Project Coordinator.

Dr. Anderson's most recent scholarly work involves investigating the role of verbal working memory in child language assessment, test development, cultural influences on pragmatics of writing, phonological awareness training for pre-school age children, and influences on reading comprehension.

She has taught child language development courses at Western Michigan University, co-written articles, and given numerous national presentations on topics related to school-age child language disorders.