Description
This is a comprehensive self-paced online introductory course for professionals to become
qualified in the administration of the Test of Auditory and Visual Skills (TAVS); including lecture,
independent study, and hands- on practical experience. You will acquire the knowledge you need
to begin using this exciting tool for screening auditory and visual processing.
Further, you will understand the individual elements that make up strong auditory processing
skills and be able to use TAVS to assess them. These areas such as temporal processing, pitch
perception, gap detection and beat competency are known to be vital for strong listening,
language development, reading and rhythm awareness.
Upon successful completion of this course, learners are authorized to administer TAVS, a
versatile screening tool for ages 5 which is ideal for use with The Listening Program, inTime, and
other interventions that seek to improve fundamental sensory processing skills.
Learning Objectives and Outcomes:
Review and understand auditory
processing terms, screening
areas, and relate them to
functional skills.
Understand the scientific basis for
testing the 12 areas offered by
TAVS.
Hands-on experience with in the
use of the TAVS device, prompt
cards, user guide, and record
sheet.
Demonstrate competence in the
administration of the pretest, quick
and full screening, adjusting
screening parameters, recording
and interpreting results.
Implement the TAVS assessment
which children and adults.
TAVS is a unique tool for assessing many subtle areas of auditory processing.
Screening areas that are important for listening, reading and attention skills
can help to understand the challenges that many children and adults may be
having within the classroom, at work, at home or in social situations.
Many children who struggle academically are offered catch up phonics, literacy and
numeracy programmes without considering that the delays in learning may be more
fundamental in nature than a simple lack of experience and practise.
Underpinning the ability to read, listen, concentrate and communicate is the ability to take in
and process auditory and visual information. The testing of areas such as temporal processing, pitch perception, gap detection and others
are vital to understanding at what level a child is delayed. This information can guide a
teacher or therapist to know exactly what level of intervention or remediation is needed to
ensure the quickest progress for the child.
TAVS offers a powerful way to assess many areas of low level visual and auditory
processing to know whether sensory processing is impaired and if it is suitable to solely
focus an intervention upon more cognitive levels of function;
Temporal Order processing. This has been shown to have close links to reading
ability, speech and phonological awareness and across visual, auditory and tactile
domains, Laasonen et al, (2001). Children and adults with TO results outside the
expected norms may well be at risk of poor speech development and phonological
awareness, poor reading abilities, challenges with sequencing of information and
short-term memory deficits.
Fusion Threshold: is a measure of temporal resolution. Temporal resolution refers
to the auditory system’s ability to follow rapid changes in the envelope of sound. This
is a key factor in processing sound across time. Challenges with temporal resolution
have been shown to correlate with reading and language development difficulties.
The use of the test for auditory/visual fusion threshold can help to understand the
relative strengths of the visual and auditory systems and whether they support each
other to improve temporal processing or interact to reduce capabilities.
Auditory Motor: subtest assesses the ability to perceive a steady beat and match
the beat. Children and adults who have challenges with keeping to an external
steady beat will often have difficulties in areas of literacy, language and phonological
awareness. These are not explained by any motor difficulty. Thomson and Goswami
(2008) found that “Children who were particularly inconsistent in tapping to a
particular rate showed the poorest literacy and phonological development.
Pitch Discrimination: is seen to be an important factor that is correlated with
phonemic awareness. Loui et al. (2011). Therefore, values outside normal ranges in
this subtest would indicate challenges with listening and literacy development due to
phonological awareness deficits.
Duration Patterns Strong levels of auditory processing require us to be able to
process the length of tones as well as pitch changes. In language, as in the natural
world, tones can differ in length as well as pitch and therefore results outside
expected ranges for these subtests can indicate difficulties with phonological
processing.
Noisegap: This subtest is a further test of temporal resolution. Gap in noise tests are
used as part of a measure of central auditory function.. As a further measure of
temporal resolution, results from the Noisegap subtest will be an indication of
difficulties in auditory processing. As Shinn et al observe, “Accurate processing of the
timing elements of sound is crucial to the most basic processing at the neuronal level
to complex higher level speech perception and spoken language processing”.
Directional Hearing: Sound localization is possible because there are tiny
differences in volume and timing in directional sound entering the left and right ear.
Results obtained that are in the unusual or significant ranges according to the current
norms provided by Tewes indicate a challenge with the timing of auditory signals
being processed in the brain stem. Sound localization and lateralization are seen as
a fundamental component of auditory processing difficulties as it involves the
processing of volume and timing differences between the two ears.
Sequence Order: The sequence order subtest gives a tone and a click and asks us
to answer “which came first?” The tone and click seek to replicate the effect of
vowels and consonants in language. Backward and forward masking occurs as is
natural when phonemes are blended within language. The click generated by the
TAVS is only 1msec long; however the pause also belongs to the click. This is the
threshold measured in milliseconds that is used to score the result in this subtest.
This corresponds to the voice onset time (VOT) and voice offset time which is the
silent transference phase from consonant to vowel and vowel to consonant. A result
well outside the mean ranges would therefore indicate a challenge with phonological
blending, segmentation and perhaps gap detection. This would correlate with
difficulties with listening, language and literacy challenges.
Crossmodality: Most testing measures available will only assess one sensory
system at a time. It is, of course, important to be able to assess either auditory
function or visual function. However in daily life we use a combination of senses with
which to interact with the world. Therefore, testing how the visual and auditory
systems combine to give us a single integrated appreciation of our environment, can
give us vital information about the subject completing the test. The cross modality test
is a measure of the temporal integration between the visual and auditory systems.
By alternating between visual and auditory stimulus it is possible to assess which
sensory mode is the most dominant when attention is divided between the two
sensory systems.
$795.00 TLP Certified Provider LIVE TRAINING & TAVS Device
$885.00 NON TLP Certified Provider LIVE TRAINING & TAVS Device
$750.00 TLP Certified Provider WEB TRAINING & TAVS Device
$825.00 NON TLP Certified Provider WEB TRAINING & TAVS Device
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