Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills (TILLS): Examiner's Kit

Watch the "Introducing TILLS" video

Test of Integrated Language & Literacy Skills™ (TILLS™) is the reliable, valid assessment professionals need to test oral and written language skills in students ages 6—18 years. TILLS is a comprehensive, norm-referenced test that has been standardized for three purposes:

• To identify language/literacy disorders
• To document patterns of relative strengths and weaknesses
• To track changes in language and literacy skills over time

To achieve these purposes, TILLS is constructed to allow you to derive scores for identifying, tracking, and profiling a student’s strengths and weaknesses and interpreting the results to support decisions about what to do next.

15 Extensively Researched Subtests
The TILLS assessment is all professionals need to capture the complete picture of students’ oral and written language skills. TILLS is composed of 15 subtests that allow examiners to assess and compare students’ language-literacy skills at both the sound/word level and the sentence/discourse level across the four oral and written modalities—listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Curriculum Relevant
TILLS measures integrated language-literacy abilities that reflect the complex language and literacy demands of the general education curriculum.

Backed By Unparalleled Data
Each TILLS subtest has been fine-tuned to meet strong psychometric standards using scientific evidence gathered in numerous pilot studies and field trials, a national beta trial, and a standardization study with more than 1200 children and adolescents across the United States.

Strong Specificity and Sensitivity
TILLS tested both sensitivity and specificity across the full age range covered by the test. In the manual, diagnostic accuracy data are broken down into nine different “age bands†meaningful to the development of language and literacy skills. Sensitivity ranges from 81% to 97%, and specificity ranges from 81% to 100%.

Streamlined Assessment
Professionals can administer the entire test, single subtests, or combinations of subtests in one or more sessions. Comprehensive assessment can typically be administered in 90 minutes or less.

Useful for a Wide Range of Students
TILLS is ideal for evaluating students:

• suspected of having a primary language impairment, also called specific language impairment
• suspected of having a learning disability, reading disability, or dyslexia
• known to have an existing condition associated with difficulties in spoken and written language (such as deaf or hard of hearing, autism spectrum disorder, or intellectual disability)
• struggling with language and literacy comprehension and social communication skills (such as social communication disorder)

The TILLS Examiner's Kit includes:

• 1 Examiner's Manual
• 1 Stimulus Book
• 1 Technical Manual
• 1 Quick Start Guide
• 1 Set of Tele-TILLS Instructions (NEW!)
• 1 Examiner’s Practice Workbook
• 25 Examiner Record Forms
• 25 Student Response Forms
• 50 Student Language Scales (forms only, SLS Manual not included)
• Digital Audio Files (on USB drive)
• TILLS tote bag

Learn more about TILLS and explore the key benefits.

Test of Integrated Language & Literacy Skills™ and TILLS™ are trademarks of Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

The contents of TILLS were developed under Grant No. R324A100354 from the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.

Nickola Wolf Nelson, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, BCS-CL, is Professor Emerita in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences and former Director of the Ph.D. program in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences at Western Michigan University. She is author of the book Language and Literacy Disorders: Infancy Through Adolescence, and first author of the Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills (TILLS), as well as editor-in-chief of the journal, Topics in Language Disorders. Dr. Nelson's research and publications focus on curriculum-based language and literacy assessment and intervention.

Elena Plante, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is a Professor in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at The University of Arizona in Tucson. She is a fellow both of The University of Arizona's College of Science and of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Her areas of research interest include language learning and assessment practices. She in addition to multiple journal articles on these topics, Dr. Plante is a co-author on the Pediatric Test of Brain Injury and the Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills. Dr. Plante has also been using neuroimaging to explore the brain bases of language and cognition for the last 2 decades. She has active national and international collaborations in the areas of neuroimaging, language, and learning.

Nancy Helm-Estabrooks, Sc.D., CCC-SLP, Brewer Smith Professor Emerita in the Department of Communication Disorders and Sciences at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina.

She was affiliated with the Harold Goodglass Aphasia Research Center and Boston University School of Medicine for 32 years, was a Research Scientist at the National Center for Neurogenic Communication Disorders at The University of Arizona, and a Research Professor at the University of North Carolina. Dr. Helm-Estabrooks is board certified by the Academy of Neurologic Communication Disorder (ANCDS). Her awards include American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and ANCDS Honors, and the Kleffner Lifetime Clinical Career Award. She is an ASHA Fellow and has published more than 90 peer-reviewed articles, 7 books, 21 chapters, and 6 standardized tests.

Gillian Hotz, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is The Director of the KiDZ Neuroscience Center, Research Professor, Department of Neurosurgery, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in Miami, Florida.

Dr. Hotz is Principal Investigator on a variety of funded research projects for acute care and rehabilitation of children with traumatic brain injury and injury prevention. She has presented at local, national, and international conferences; has published numerous papers on the topic of traumatic brain injury; and is coauthor of the Brief Test of Head Injury

(with Nancy Helm-Estabrooks, PRO-ED, 1991). Dr. Hotz is a member of a number of advisory groups, including the Florida Injury Prevention Advisory Council and the Sarah Jane Brain Project/The National Pediatric Acquired Brain Injury Plan.