OPUS: Oral Passage Understanding Scale Elizabeth Carrow-Woolfolk, Amber M. Klein

Description

Ages: 5-0 to 21-11
Testing time: 10 to 20 minutes
Administration: Individual

Oral Passage Understanding Scale is a new measure of listening (auditory) comprehension. It evaluates a person's ability to listen to passages that are read aloud and recall information about them. This ability is key to success in the classroom, as well as in social and occupational settings. The OPUS also measures memory skills, which are integral to listening comprehension.

The OPUS can be used on its own anytime you need to measure how well an individual understands orally presented information. It provides important evidence for everyone involved in treatment, so you can help children and young adults reach their potential at school, at home, at work, and in the community.

What It Measures

The OPUS is designed to assess the comprehension of spoken language in a natural context, a skill that is fundamental to classroom learning. It evaluates the ability to integrate and apply knowledge in three structural categories of language:

• Lexical/Semantic: Knowledge and use of words and word combinations
• Syntactic: Knowledge and use of grammar
• Supralinguistic: Knowledge and use of language in which meaning is not directly available from the surface lexical and syntactic information

Measuring higher-level comprehension skills, including inference and prediction, yields more detailed information beyond simply whether or not the individual can comprehend. These skills require deeper processing abilities and thus differentiate typically developing individuals from those with language and learning delays or disorders. The OPUS also measures memory skills, which are integral to listening comprehension.

The OPUS Form features Item Analysis Worksheets to identify strengths and areas for improvement and to help you write IEP goals and intervention plans. Because the Item Analysis Worksheet is perforated, you can easily detach it from the form as needed. The self-standing OPUS Easel includes the passages, items, scoring criteria, and samples of correct and incorrect responses. The beginning of each Item Set is tabbed to help you easily find the one you need. Each sample response listed in the easel is assigned a letter that can be used as shorthand for recording responses on the OPUS Form, and if the examinee's response is not included you can write it in the space provided on the form.

Technical Information

Standardization for the OPUS is based on a sample of 1,517 individuals ages 5 to 21 years. The sample is stratified to match recent U.S. Census data for gender, race/ethnicity, parents' education level, and geographic region so you can confidently use the OPUS with a wide range of individuals. The OPUS and CASL-2 are co-normed, supporting the validity of both tests and making them wonderful companions. A clinical validation sample of 204 individuals demonstrates that the CASL-2 can differentiate between typically developing individuals and those with the following diagnoses:

• Expressive and/or receptive language disorder
• Hearing impairment
• Autism spectrum disorder
• Social (pragmatic) communication disorder
• Intellectual disability
• Learning disability
• Developmental delay

The OPUS has strong internal consistency and test-retest and interrater reliability, demonstrating the stability and reliability of results over time and across raters. The OPUS's validity is also supported by expected standard score correlations with other measures of oral language, including the CASL-2.

COMPLETE OPUS KIT INCLUDES: Examiner's Manual, Easel, and 10 Forms. Includes access to OPUS online scoring and reporting features available through the WPS Online Evaluation System (platform.wpspublish.com). (©2017)