Why Informal Assessments Matter Just as Much as Standardized Tests
Standardized assessments tell you where a child stands relative to their peers. Informal assessments tell you what is actually happening in a real session, and what to do next. You need both, and they work best when used together.
Kim Dillon, MA, CCC-SLP
5 min read
What standardized assessments do well
Standardized assessments have an important and well-defined role in speech therapy. They give you norm-referenced scores. These allow comparison of a child's performance to same-age peers using a consistent, validated method. They provide the documentation for eligibility determination, IEP qualification, and third-party billing. They are the formal record that a child's communication differs from developmental expectations.
For those purposes, standardized tests are irreplaceable.
What standardized assessments cannot do
Standardized assessments are designed to measure performance under specific, controlled conditions, usually a quiet room, specific picture-naming tasks, and a structured protocol. That control is what makes them reliable and norm-referenced. And it is also what limits what they can tell you.
They cannot tell you how a child communicates during a play activity with a familiar adult. They cannot show you how PCC changes when a child is excited and talking fast versus calm and focused. And by design they are not meant to be. They are a snapshot in time, taken under standardized conditions, for a specific clinical purpose.
THE GAP IN THE MIDDLE
Formal evaluations happen once a year or less. In between, a child has dozens of sessions. Progress happens, plateaus emerge, and treatment targets shift. None of that shows up in a standardized score. Informal data collected consistently across those sessions is what fills that gap.
How informal and standardized assessments work together
The most complete clinical picture comes from using both. Think of them as two different lenses that show different things about the same child.
STANDARDIZED ASSESSMENT
What it measures: Performance on structured tasks compared to peers
Best used for: Eligibility, IEP qualification, billing documentation
How often: Annually or when updated evaluation is needed
What it captures: A snapshot at one point in time
Limitation: May not reflect real-world communication
INFORMAL ASSESSMENT
What it measures: Performance in naturalistic, real-session contexts
Best used for: Treatment planning, progress monitoring, parent communication
How often: Regularly throughout the treatment period
What it capturesL. Change and progress across sessions
Limitation: Not norm-referenced, not a replacement for formal eval
A child who scores within normal limits on a standardized articulation assessment but whose conversational speech is significantly less intelligible is a perfect example of why both matter. The standardized score tells one story. An informal PCC from a play-based speaking sample tells another. Together they give you the full picture, and a much stronger case for services if services are needed.
Using informal data for ongoing progress monitoring
One of the most valuable things you can do with consistent informal assessment data is track change over time. When you collect PCC from a naturalistic speaking sample every six to eight weeks using the same method, you are not just getting a score, you are building a record of how a child's speech sound accuracy is moving in response to treatment.
That data does three things that a standardized score alone cannot:
It tells you whether your treatment approach is working before the next formal evaluation rolls around. If PCC has not moved in eight weeks, that is data telling you something needs to change.
It gives you something concrete to bring to IEP meetings. Walking in with current PCC data, a consonant inventory update, and a list of phonological processes that have resolved since the last evaluation is far more compelling than relying on year-old standardized scores.
It gives families a tangible way to understand progress. "PCC has moved from 62% to 74% since September" is something a parent can hold onto. It connects the work happening in sessions to the changes they are noticing at home.
The three informal assessment tools we use in our own practice
We built three browser-based informal assessment tools that we use with our own pediatric caseloads, one for speech sounds, one for fluency, and one for early language. Each one is designed to be used alongside formal evaluation, not instead of it, and each generates a parent-friendly summary PDF that makes those end-of-session conversations significantly easier.
Informal Speech Sound Assessment
PCC · Consonant Inventory · Phonological Processes · Motor Planning
Calculates PCC in real time across two play-based speaking samples. Documents consonant errors by developmental age, identifies active phonological processes, and generates a parent summary PDF in one click. Use it alongside the Goldman Fristoe or another standardized test for a complete speech sound picture.
Informal Fluency & Stuttering Assessment
%SS · 6 Disfluency Types · Severity Scoring · Secondary Behaviors
Tallies six disfluency types across three speaking samples while percent stuttered syllables calculates live. Captures fluency in naturalistic contexts. Parent summary and stuttering tips handout download in one click.
Informal Early Language Assessment
MLU · Brown's Stages · Let's Talk Communication Stages · IEP Goals
Calculates MLU from a naturalistic language sample and automatically matches Brown's Stage I–V. The Let's Talk Communication Stage checklist identifies the child's working stage and suggests IEP-ready goals. Use it alongside standardized language assessments to add the conversational language picture.
Learn more about our Informal Assessments Here
The bottom line
Standardized assessments are essential. They are the clinical and legal foundation of what we do. But they do not answer every clinical question. The questions that matter most in the day-to-day work of pediatric speech therapy are often the ones only informal assessment can answer.
What is actually happening in this child's speech in real conversation? Is this treatment approach moving the needle? What do I tell this family when they ask if their child is making progress? Those questions deserve structured, consistent, clinically grounded answers. That is what informal assessment is for.