Telepractice and the GFTA-3 Spanish

Professionals should address five themes (Eichstadt, Castilleja, Jakubowitz, and Wallace, 2013) when planning for administering GFTA™-3 Spanish assessments via telepractice:

For more information on the five themes, please visit our general telepractice web page.

Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation 3 - Spanish (GFTA-3 Spanish)

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Special recommendations for administering GFTA-3 Spanish via telepractice

1. Audio/visual environment

Cue the examinee to sit close to the camera to ensure that the full face of the examinee is in view during the administration.
A headset with a boom microphone for the examiner and the examinee is highly recommended for every GFTA-3 Spanish assessment via telepractice. Ask the examinee to adjust the boom microphone so that you can clearly see movement of the articulators. Ask the e-helper to adjust lighting if needed.
Test the audio either through the examinee's speakers or headset and ensure a high-quality audio presentation, whether live or recorded stimulus prompts.

2. Examiner factors

Practice administering a GFTA-3 Spanish assessment before you test a client to ensure that you are familiar with the administration directions and with navigating the digital stimulus book.
Make a clinical judgment, similar to a face-to-face session, whether or not you are able to gather the child's best performance. Report your clinical decision(s) in your report and comment on the factors that led to this decision and your reporting or lack of reporting of the scores.

3. Examinee factors

There may be select administrations where an examinee headset is not appropriate or feasible. For this instance, make sure you have a web camera with an embedded microphone or a stand-alone microphone with the volume turned up to a comfortable loudness level.
If the examinee turns his or her face away from the camera when responding and does not respond to cues to sit close to or face the camera, you may not be able to see and/or hear the response sufficiently well to match a face-to-face assessment. Work with the onsite paraprofessional or caregiver to attempt to elicit responses that you can see and hear clearly. You can only obtain valid test results if the examinee is able to speak loud enough facing the camera for you to reliably score responses.

4. Test/test materials

Make sure you have only one (1) image of the stimulus pictures showing to the examinee at any time.
Go to "full screen" with the stimulus pictures to eliminate distractions on the desktop/video window within the telepractice environment for the examinee.
There are already studies supporting the equivalency of test scores when picture stimuli are displayed via digital display vs. in print form on an easel. Descriptive reporting may be warranted if the administration is attempted and documentation of the exact procedures must be fully described in the report.

Selected Research to Date

Studies supporting the equivalency of test scores when picture stimuli are displayed to the examinee in a printed manual versus a digital display on a computer screen (in-person administration):

Daniel, M. H., Wahlstrom, D., & Zhou, X. (2014). Equivalence of Q-interactive and paper administrations of language tasks: Selected CELF-5 tests. Q-interactive Technical Report 7. Bloomington, MN: Pearson.

Daniel, M. H. (2012a). Equivalence of Q-interactive administered cognitive tasks: WAIS–IV. Q-interactive Technical Report 1. Bloomington, MN: Pearson.

Daniel, M. H. (2012b). Equivalence of Q-interactive administered cognitive tasks: WISC–IV. Q-interactive Technical Report 2. Bloomington, MN: Pearson.

Zhang, O., & Wang, S. (2015) Equivalence of Q-interactive® and Paper Administrations of a Speech Sound Task, GFTA™-3 Sounds-in-Words: WISC–IV. Q-interactive Technical Report 8. Bloomington, MN: Pearson.

Study addressing the use of GFTA-2 via telepractice:

Eichstadt, T. J., Castilleja, N., Jakubowitz, M., & Wallace, A. (2013, November). Standardized assessment via telepractice: qualitative review and survey data. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American-Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Chicago, IL.

Note: Further research may be added over time.

Conclusion

The GFTA-3 Spanish may be used reliably via telepractice, as noted above. Further research is underway on the tests where a similar performance between paper and telepractice presentation may be in question. Therefore, you may use the GFTA-3 Spanish via telepractice without additional permission from Pearson when using the GFTA-3 Spanish Digital Stimulus book in the Q-global™ Resource Library

Any other use of the GFTA-3 Spanish via telepractice requires prior permission from Pearson. This includes, but is not limited to, scanning the paper stimulus books, digitizing the paper record forms, holding the materials physically up in the camera's viewing area, or uploading a manual on to a shared drive or site.