Slingerland Screening Skills

Learn to Look More Closely

Effective instruction begins with understanding the learner. The Slingerland Screening Skills class helps educators develop the observational skills needed to recognize patterns of strength and difficulty that may affect a student’s success with reading, writing, and language.

Slingerland Screening Skills introduces the procedures for administering and analyzing Forms A, B, C, and D for students.  These screenings, developed by Beth H. Slingerland, help identify students who will have added benefit from structured multi-sensory instruction, and whose current language difficulties may continue beyond periods of development or maturational lag and become persistent specific language disabilities in later grades.  The sooner these students are identified, the sooner remediation can begin. 

Grounded in the Slingerland Approach, this class introduces participants to screening procedures used to gather meaningful information about how a student processes and responds to language-based tasks. Participants learn not only what to observe, but how careful observation can help inform instructional decisions.

Through demonstration, guided practice, and discussion, participants will strengthen their ability to administer screening activities, record observations, and consider what student responses may reveal about individual learning needs.

Participants must locate their own student to screen by the start of this class.  

Slingerland Screenings do not provide formal diagnosis of learning disabilities.

What You’ll Learn

By the end of this class, participants will be able to:

• Explain the purpose of screening within the Slingerland Approach.

• Identify important behaviors and response patterns to observe during screening.

• Administer selected Slingerland screening activities using established procedures to individual students, small groups, or whole classrooms.

• Record student responses and observations accurately and systematically.

• Recognize patterns of strengths and difficulties revealed through screening activities.

• Use screening observations to better understand a student’s instructional needs.

• Report screening results to parents, teachers, administrators, and the student who was screened.

• Make clear, actionable suggestions on how best to meet the student's learning needs.

Who Should Attend

This class is designed for educators who want to strengthen their ability to observe students systematically and use those observations to inform instruction.

It may be especially valuable for Slingerland-trained educators who want to refresh or deepen their screening skills, as well as teachers and other education professionals seeking a better understanding of how careful observation can illuminate the learning process.

Why Screening Skills Matter

When a student struggles, knowing where the difficulty occurs can change what happens next.

Screening gives educators a structured way to slow down, observe carefully, and gather information about how a learner approaches language tasks. Rather than relying only on scores or completed work, educators learn to notice the behaviors that occur during the learning process.

These observations can help teachers make more purposeful instructional decisions and better respond to the individual learner—the foundation of effective Slingerland instruction.

Class Dates (4:30-7:30pm Pacific)

• Thursday, October 8

• Thursday, October 15

• Thursday, October 22

• Thursday, October 29 *Final Project Debrief by Appointment

INCLUDED  MATERIALS:

Text

• Slingerland Screening: Teacher Test Booklet

Materials

• Specimen Set – Slingerland Screening Forms A, B, & C

• Cards and Charts - Slingerland Screening Form A, B, & C

Digital Resources

• Guides on administering and reporting

• Parent/Guardian Observation Inventory

• Instructor Observation Inventory

• Subtest analysis chart and comparison calculator

• …and more

OPTIONAL MATERIALS: (Available through EPS website)

• Slingerland Screening Form D

• Cards and Charts Form D

12.5 classroom hours. This workshop is approved for 1 graduate level extension credit through University of San Diego.

Instructor: Shirley Hitchcock

Shirley Hitchcock, Certified Slingerland Instructor of Teachers (CSIT), has been an elementary teacher, student support teacher, school administrator, and teacher of higher education. Shirley brings her wealth of experience and passion for education to every class.