Dynamic assessment of narrative and expository discourse

The ability to understand and create stories and explanations plays an impo rtant role in the acquisition of literacy. This article describes how clini cians can use an assessment process known as Dynamic Assessment to evaluate children's narrative and expository discourse abilities. These assessment procedures help speech-language pathologists better describe the language l earning potential of children who are referred for language assessment, and they yield information that is useful for determining whether children pre sent a language difference or a language disorder. We also demonstrate how Dynamic Assessment provides critical information for planning language inte rvention.