Differential Screening Test for Processing (DSTP)

Determine if your student has difficulty with auditory processing, difficulty with language processing, or a combination of the two. The DSTP is the only test of its kind to differentiate among the various levels of auditory and language processing and identifies areas for referral or further evaluation. The DSTP is a screening instrument to assist professionals in determining if additional diagnostic assessment is warranted and the specific areas of focus for further testing.

The subtest areas of the DSTP represent the neurological continuum of processing acoustic stimuli. Critical skills are evaluated in three major levels: acoustic, acoustic-linguistic, and linguistic. Test vocabulary was carefully chosen to be within the linguistic capabilities of the target population.

Subtests

Level One – Acoustic Subtests

• A: Dichotic Digits
  Binaural integration skills are sampled at a cortical level.  The student listens to four numbers presented simultaneously, two to each ear, and repeats them.  The task relies upon the ability of the two hemispheres to communicate with each other.
• B: Temporal Patterning
  This subtest examines right hemisphere-based auditory pattern recognition skills.  The student is asked to recognize acoustic patterns of tone sequences and identify which tones are high and low.
• C: Auditory Discrimination
  This subtest probes left-hemisphere-based acoustic analysis skills.  The student discriminates and repeats nonsense syllables presented within a background of steady-state noise.

Level Two – Acoustic-Linguistic Subtests

• Subtest D: Phonemic Manipulation
  This subtest consists of three tasks to see if the student can discriminate sound components within a linguistic signal: recognizing the number of discrete sounds in words, blending discrete phonemes into a word, and changing or modifying specific discrete phonemes.
• Subtest E: Phonic Manipulation
  The initial stages of sound-symbol association are examined with three tasks: spelling words with letter tiles, synthesizing sounds into a correctly spelled word, and modifying the visual representation of sounds heard.

Level Three – Linguistic Subtests

• Subtest F: Antonyms
  Examine your student's acquisition of the semantic language concept of opposite by asking him to supply the opposite meaning of a word.  This discrete language task requires quick and accurate retrieval of words.
• Subtest G: Prosodic Interpretation
  This subtest requires the student to attach meaning beyond the words spoken.  The student "reads between the lines" to determine the sincerity of the message.
• Subtest H: Language Organization
  Examine the ability to retrieve language ideas, organize thoughts, and recognize salient aspects of a message.  The student hears clues and uses them to generate a response.  Then, the student looks at a picture and generates clues that are focused and pertinent.

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