How to Administer the GFTA-3

Wondering how to administer the GFTA-3 and how to interpret test results?

In this article, you’ll learn how to administer the GFTA-3, or the Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation, Third Edition, a common assessment used by speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in private practice.

If you serve pediatric clients, the GFTA-3 is an essential component in your diagnostic toolkit. For most SLPs, it’s the go-to test for comprehensive assessment of speech sound delays and disorders.

This guide will provide the GFTA-3 description, go over how to administer the GFTA-3, and break down how to get the most out of this standardized assessment so you can better support young clients experiencing speech delays and disorders.

What is the Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation (GFTA)?

The Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation, Third Edition (GFTA-3) is a systematic, norm-referenced assessment designed to give speech-language therapists a clear picture of a client’s articulation skills in Standard American English.

Specifically, the GFTA-3 assesses consonant and consonant cluster production, in the context of words in isolation and in sentences. The test’s structure includes opportunities to sample an individual’s spontaneous speech and imitation, making it easier to determine both intelligibility and stimulability.

This standardized measure of articulation was normed on individuals ages 2-21, and its most recent (third) edition was published in 2015.

If you’re learning how to administer the GFTA-3, you may be wondering how much time to allot for this assessment.

SLPs should plan on spending about 15 minutes administering the GFTA-3 Sounds-in-Words section, with optional additional time for Sounds-in-Sentences, Intelligibility, and Stimulability sections.

The GFTA-3 offers a quick and efficient way to gather critical data about a client’s speech sound production of high-frequency phonemes in a variety of contexts.

It’s a diagnostic staple for SLPs who work with children and an instrumental component of any pediatric speech-language evaluation.

The steps for how to administer the GFTA-3

Ready to administer the Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation?

Sounds-in-Words section

You’ll begin with the Sounds-in-Words subtest, which involves presenting a series of picture stimuli to the client.

1. The first step is to turn to the appropriate page of the stimulus book depending on the age of the client being evaluated. One series of picture stimuli is meant for children ages 2-6, while the other series was developed for ages 7-21. Each picture represents a target word, such as “house” or “spider.”

2. After showing a picture stimulus, the SLP requests that the client label the item in the picture. Each consonant and consonant cluster tested is judged as correct or incorrect. It can be helpful to audio record client productions during administration to allow for later playback and analysis.

3. If the child produces the target word correctly, you may move on to the next item without marking anything in the “IPA Transcription” or “Response” columns of the scoring form.

Responses that are consistent with dialectal or regional variations of Standard American English are considered correct (refer to Appendix E of the GFTA-3 manual for more information on what is deemed acceptable).

4. When learning how to administer the GFTA-3, SLPs should make sure they understand how to mark down substitutions, omissions, and distortions on the scoring form. These are all considered speech sound errors and count towards a client’s overall raw score.

For each of these error types, cross out the misarticulated or omitted phoneme in the IPA Transcription column. While it’s not necessary, you may phonetically transcribe the client’s production in the Response column. This is especially useful when multiple substitutions, distortions, or omissions are produced for one test item.

5. On the right-hand side of the scoring form, you’ll see a purple, green, and blue column representing initial, medial, and final phonemes respectively.

The administering clinician must cross out each phoneme produced (or omitted) in error in the appropriate column. In the space below the target phoneme, write down the substituted phoneme or a dash (-) indicating an omission. Distortions can be transcribed using diacritic marks.

If a client does not respond to a prompt, the SLP may write “NR” or “no response” in the Response column.

Sounds-in-Sentences section

You’ll follow this same process when administering the Sounds-in-Sentences subtest.

If you’re researching how to administer the GFTA-3, you may be curious how this part of the test differs from Sounds-in-Words. Like the first subtest, this portion of the GFTA-3 also has two separate sections based on age: one for ages 2-6 and another for ages 7-21.

1. For Sounds-in-Sentences, the administering SLP tells a short story while sharing picture stimuli.

2. Afterwards, the clinician retells each sentence of the story one at a time, and the client must repeat the sentences. This allows for assessment of articulation in connected speech.

3. Just as before, you will score the client’s production of target words as correct or incorrect, making marks and comments in the designated columns of the scoring form.

Intelligibility section 

At the same time, in the Intelligibility section, you may assess the individual’s intelligibility in connected speech for each sentence, on a scale from one (good) to three (poor). A score of four indicates no response.

Stimulability section 

The GFTA-3 also includes a Stimulability measure.

In this final portion of the assessment, speech-language pathologists can test a client’s ability to imitate consonants and blends that were misarticulated or omitted on the prior subtests.

1. The SLP produces each target sound at the syllable, word, and sentence level.

2. Then the SLP marks down phonemes that are correctly and incorrectly imitated by the client.

How often can you administer the GFTA-3?

Unlike many language-based standardized assessments, the Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation may be administered at any frequency interval.

That means an SLP may reevaluate a child’s articulation using the GFTA-3 even if the client has recently been assessed using the same test. Because articulation is an oral-motor skill, recollection of stimulus pictures or target words has no bearing on the validity of results.

If you’ve been wondering about test-retest frequency and how to administer the GFTA-3, you can confidently use this standardized measure whenever you deem it appropriate.

GFTA-3 score interpretation

The final piece to understanding how to administer the GFTA-3 is knowing how to make sense of a client’s scores.

Individuals receive a separate raw score and standard score for the Sounds-in-Words and Sounds-in-Sentences subtests, based on the number of errors produced on target consonants and consonant clusters.

Raw scores are converted into standard scores. The Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation has a mean standard score of 100, with a standard deviation of 15.

The GFTA-3 scoring manual breaks down percentile ranks and confidence intervals associated with each standard score by age and gender, so you can more precisely determine the severity of a child’s articulation delay.

It also provides a qualitative description for numerical standard scores, ranging from: above average (115+), average (86-114), borderline (78-85), low/moderate (71-77), and very low/severe (70 and below).

This data is useful for interpreting whether a client’s performance on the GFTA-3 is age-appropriate or indicates a need for therapeutic intervention.

Similarly, use of the Intelligibility and Stimulability portions of the test provides speech pathologists with a more holistic picture of the client’s articulation abilities.

A child may fall within the “very low/severe” range, in terms of standard score, but present with “good” intelligibility in 90% of connected speech. Or, perhaps the client shows a strong degree of stimulability for a few consonants produced in error, indicating potential for improvement with intervention. This creates a natural starting point for therapy.

While it may appear overwhelming at first, the GFTA-3 is a simple, efficient way to gather data about pediatric articulation skills. It’s popular among speech-language pathologists in private practice for a reason.

Knowing how to administer the GFTA-3 opens doors, making it possible to diagnose articulation delays and disorders and improve speech therapy outcomes.

The GFTA-3 can be accessed through the Pearson Assessments store.

Source

Pearson Assessments. Goldman, R., Fristoe, M. (2015). The Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation™ 3 (GFTA™-3).

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