Teaching · Speech & Language

How much of each language a student really gets.

List the people and places in a typical week, the language with each and the hours. The questionnaire works out each language’s share of hearing time and of speaking time, adds school and literacy history, and asks the comparison that matters most: how the student does next to peers with the same languages.

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Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Speech & Language toolkit, $79 for 72 items.

The exposure questionnaire

One questionnaire per student, keyed by initials or a code. Hours are estimates for a typical week. The example is made up.

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What you get

Teaching · Speech & Language$12 · included with Classroom and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with
A language exposure profile for each multilingual student: the people and places in a typical week with the language and hours for each, each language’s share of hearing time and of speaking time, age of first regular English, school and literacy history, how the student compares with peers who share the languages, and interpreter needs. The CSV holds every row of every week.
Who it is for
Speech-language pathologists, school psychologists, English learner teachers and evaluation teams working with students who use more than one language, before a screening or an evaluation.
Format
Browser questionnaire, used with the family or the student. Several saved questionnaires; printed with the shares or as a blank interview form; CSV of every person-and-place row; export and import a file.
Access
$12 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Speech & Language toolkit ($79) and the Teaching Suite pass ($199), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Speech & Language space in Caveat Teaching.
Support
Questions about an order, access or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.
MTWTFSS
Drawn for this page. Where and with whom a student spends the week decides how much of each language they hear and use.

How to use it

  1. Start a record with the student’s initials or a code, and note the languages from birth and when English started.
  2. Add a row for each person or place in a typical week, with the language, the hours and whether the student mostly hears it or also speaks it.
  3. For a person who switches languages with the student, add two rows and split the hours.
  4. Record school language history and literacy, then the comparison with peers who share the languages.
  5. Read the shares and next steps, book an interpreter if needed, and print the questionnaire.

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Using exposure to tell a difference from a disorder

Why the hours matter

How much a child hears and uses each language shapes how far along they are in it. A student who hears English for a third of the week, or who started English two years ago, will often know fewer English words than classmates. That is a language difference, not a disorder. The shares here give the team a concrete picture instead of a single label such as “English learner”.

The comparison that matters

A language disorder shows up in every language the child uses, and next to peers with similar experience. The questionnaire asks the family about the home language next to siblings or cousins, and about English next to classmates who started at a similar age. Under IDEA, a child cannot be found eligible when the determining factor is limited English proficiency, and testing is given in the language most likely to give accurate information.

What the shares are, and are not

Shares are of the hours you enter, not of the whole week, and they rest on estimates. They are not a test score and do not decide anything by themselves. Records use a code, never a name, and stay in this browser.

Sources

  1. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act regulations, 34 CFR 300.304(c)(1)(ii) (assessments in the language and form most likely to yield accurate information) and 300.306(b)(1)(iii) (limited English proficiency may not be the determining factor).
  2. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Practice Portal: Bilingual Service Delivery; Collaborating With Interpreters, Transliterators, and Translators (asha.org/practice-portal).
  3. Paradis, J., Genesee, F., and Crago, M. (2021). Dual Language Development and Disorders (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Brookes.
  4. Kohnert, K. (2013). Language Disorders in Bilingual Children and Adults (2nd ed.). San Diego: Plural.
  5. Hoff, E., et al. (2012). Dual language exposure and early bilingual development. Journal of Child Language, 39(1), 1–27.

The example student and family are made up. The questionnaire records estimates of language exposure; it does not test, compare with norms or decide eligibility, and it holds no state rules. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.