Auditory Skills Assessment (ASA)

The ASA provides you with a tool for early identification of young children who might be at risk for auditory skill deficits and/or early literacy skill difficulties. Developed by Dr. Donna Geffner and Dr. Ronald Goldman, this screener provides accurate, developmentally based results to help you determine which children may need follow-up, intervention, or further evaluation.

The ASA is designed for varied uses, including the following:

• Early identification and intervention.
  A child identified on the ASA as at risk for auditory skill-related deficits may be a good candidate for an in-depth evaluation and/or possible early intervention.
• Universal screening.
  The ASA can be used to screen children ages 3:6–6 :11 as a preliminary assessment of their auditory skills. It is a perfect companion to routine hearing screenings within the given age range.
• Progress monitoring.
  Re-administration of the ASA can be used to check a child's progress with auditory skills and to determine if an intervention is working, still required, or if an in-depth assessment of the child's skills is needed.

The ASA is designed to be a quick, reliable indicator of a young child’s auditory skills and includes the following features:

• Unscored practice items provide opportunity to teach the tasks
• Individual, untimed administration and scoring procedures that are quick, easy, and objective
• No required reading or written responses
• Large, full-color illustrations tested to appeal to young children
• An indicator of performance (high, average, low) by domain to pinpoint further assessment or intervention needs
• Case studies highlighted in the manual for supported use of the ASA
• Researched validity and reliability

The ASA offers the following benefits:

• Assesses auditory skills critical to the development of oral and written language skills
• Offers the youngest age range in a published auditory skills screening and can provide an early warning indicator
• Reflects best practices in behaviorally based auditory screening
• Serves as a low tech, friendly screener for young children, that doesn’t require headphones or an audiometer (a Stimulus CD is used to present stimuli)
• Helps point you in the right direction by providing an indicator of performance across each domain on the ASA, which may indicate a need for further follow-up evaluation, immediate intervention/instruction in auditory skills, or re-screening

From December 2008 through May 2009, over 600 children were tested at 123 locations throughout the United States to define cut scores that would best discriminate clinical cases from non-clinical cases and to study the final screener’s reliability, validity, and clinical utility. ASA research included:

• Qualitative reviews and empirical analyses to maximize fairness for individuals from different groups (by sex, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and geographic region)
• A standardization sample of children ages 3:6–6:11 whose primary language (most frequently spoken language) was English, who had normal vision with or without corrective aids, and were free of upper respiratory problems or ear infections at the time of testing
• The requirement that all children in the standardization and clinical samples could pass a pure tone hearing screening at 20 db HL at 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz in both ears within one week prior to ASA testing, to ensure hearing acuity of the participants
• A standardization sample that accurately reflects the U.S. population according to important demographic variables

Hand scoring

ASA Publication Summary, including test development information.

• Ronald Goldman, PhD


• Donna Geffner, PhD, CCC-SLP/A