One of the purposes of a speech-language assessment is diagnosis. What does the SLP determine?

• A. Should be referred for speech therapy.
• B. Produces more speech errors than his age peers.
• C. Scored at the 16th percentile on a standardized test.
• D. Has a primary or secondary speech sound disorder.

Answer: (D)

In a speech-language assessment, the diagnostic focus is on whether there is a speech sound disorder and, if so, what kind it is. The conclusion that best fits this purpose is that the individual has a primary or secondary speech sound disorder. A primary disorder means there’s a speech sound difficulty not attributable to another condition, while a secondary disorder means the speech issue arises from another underlying condition (such as a hearing loss, motor speech impairment, or structural issue). This labeling directly identifies the nature of the problem, guiding treatment decisions.

Notes on the other points: saying someone should be referred for therapy is a plan of action that comes after diagnosing a disorder, not the diagnosis itself; noting that someone produces more errors than peers describes performance relative to peers but doesn’t by itself constitute a disorder; and a percentile score indicates relative performance on a test, not a diagnostic category.