The Brief Grammatical Morpheme Screener: Screen English Grammar Fast

You're rushing from site to site, and a new referral comes in. It's a 2nd grader who "doesn't talk quite right."

You already have your handy dandy articulation screener from our first post. But you need to screen grammar too, and this little one is rumored to be very shy. You wish you had a brief grammatical morpheme screener you could use to document your concerns.

Well, here it is.

👉 Download the free Brief Grammatical Morpheme Screener (PDF)

👉 Download the picture cards with prompts (PDF): the same 42 cards with each prompt printed small under the picture (never the answer), so you don't have to flip back to the script.

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Where this screener came from

A few years back, I ran the MTSS program at a virtual school site. I was tasked with screening every new referral first, then deciding on one of two paths: refer the student for a full evaluation, or start them in MTSS.

MTSS stands for Multi-Tiered System of Supports. It's a school-wide framework that matches the level of support to each student's needs, in layers:

• Tier 1: Strong instruction for every student in the general education classroom
• Tier 2: Targeted, small-group support for students who need a little more
• Tier 3: Intensive, individualized support for students who need the most help

Progress data guide every decision about moving a student between tiers. You may also hear the term RTI (Response to Intervention), a closely related framework that often works inside MTSS.

With referrals coming in constantly, I needed a protocol that let me score everything the same way every time, so my screenings were quick, efficient, and reliable. Every screening ended with a decision I could explain and defend. This screener is built on the same idea, and it will help you do the same.

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Why screen grammatical morphemes?

Grammatical morphemes are the small pieces of language that carry grammar: the -ing in running, the -s in cats, the -ed in jumped, and little words like is, the, and a.

Brown (1973) described 14 grammatical morphemes that children acquire in a predictable order, roughly between ages 2 and 4. Because the order is so consistent, these morphemes give you a quick window into whether a child's grammar is developing on schedule.

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Why picture probes instead of only a language sample?

A language sample shows you what a child actually uses in conversation, and it's still the gold standard. But in a screening, it has three problems:

1. You may never hear the target morpheme. A child can talk for 50 utterances and never need the past tense.
2. It takes time. Collecting and transcribing a good sample is not a 5-minute job.
3. Shy children give you very little. It takes time to build rapport, and a screening is often the first short session. Short or nonexistent answers make a sample hard to interpret.

Probes solve all three. Each picture and prompt creates an obligatory context, a sentence where the morpheme has to appear, so you hear whether the child can produce it. This is the same idea behind Berko's (1958) classic "wug" test.

For example, you show a card with one cat and then two cats and say, "Here is one cat. Here are two ___." The child only needs to say one word: cats. That makes probes much easier for a shy child than open-ended conversation.

The screener still includes an optional language sample and MLU section, because probes show what a child can produce, while a sample shows what they actually use.

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What's in the free screener

The 8-page PDF includes:

• A protocol page with administration and scoring rules
• A probe script with the picture, prompt, and target for all 42 items
• A score sheet that walks you through the result for each morpheme
• A summary page for clinical observations, an optional MLU calculation, and your final result
• 42 original picture cards, labeled by number only (for example, 4a) so they don't show the target word

Prefer not to flip back to the script? A separate download has the same cards with each prompt printed in small type under the picture. Most children under 5 can't read, so it won't distract them, and the answer is never shown.

There are 3 probes for each of Brown's 14 morphemes. For plurals, possessives, regular past tense, and 3rd person -s, the three probes cover all three sound forms (/s/, /z/, and /ɪz/), as in cats, dogs, and buses. The /ɪz/ forms often come in last, so this gives you useful detail.

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How to give it

Most children finish in about 5 minutes. Show one card at a time and read the prompt exactly as written.

• Don't model the target. Say the prompt, and repeat it once if the child wasn't listening.
• Bare answers don't count when the target is a small word. If you ask "Tell me what he's doing" and the child says "eating," you haven't heard the is. Re-prompt once: "Say the whole thing."
• Full or contracted forms both count in contractible contexts (she is or she's).
• Write down every answer. An unexpected answer is useful clinical information.

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How to score it

Mark each item correct, incorrect, or D for a dialect feature (more on that below). A morpheme is solid when the child gets all 3 of 3 probes correct. This is a screening rule, not a mastery rule. Brown defined mastery as correct use in 90% of obligatory contexts in spontaneous speech.

Then, for each morpheme below 3 of 3, compare it to the child's age:

Child's age vs. the morpheme's range	Score	Status	What it means
Younger than the start of the range	Any	Too young	Not counted
Within the range	Below 3 of 3	Emerging	Points toward Monitor
Older than the end of the range	2 of 3	Inconsistent	Points toward MTSS
Older than the end of the range	0 or 1 of 3	Should have	Points toward Refer

Why the 2-of-3 tier? A child who gets 2 of 3 can produce the morpheme but doesn't use it consistently yet. That's exactly the kind of skill targeted MTSS support can move. As a school SLP, I saw MTSS help many of these kids catch up.

The age ranges are the commonly cited ages of mastery for Brown's morphemes (Brown, 1973; Miller, 1981):

Morpheme	Example	Age of mastery (months)
Present progressive -ing	running	19–28
in	in the box	27–30
on	on the table	27–30
Regular plural -s	cats	24–33
Irregular past	ate	25–46
Possessive 's	the dog's	26–40
Uncontractible copula	Yes, she is.	27–39
Articles	a ball	28–46
Regular past -ed	jumped	26–48
Regular 3rd person -s	eats	26–46
Irregular 3rd person	has, does	28–50
Uncontractible auxiliary	Yes, he is. (to "Is he swimming?")	29–48
Contractible copula	She's tired.	29–49
Contractible auxiliary	He's eating.	30–50

These ages come from a small number of children, so treat them as guides, not cutoffs. The order of acquisition is more reliable than the exact ages.

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Screening an older child, like that 2nd grader

Every age range on the list ends by about 50 months (4;2). So for a 2nd grader, every morpheme should already be in place. A morpheme at 2 of 3 points toward MTSS, and a morpheme at 0 or 1 of 3 points toward a full evaluation.

Pay special attention to tense markers: -ed, 3rd person -s, and forms of is and are. School-age children with developmental language disorder (DLD) often keep leaving these out long after their peers have mastered them (Rice et al., 1995).

Older children may find the pictures easy. That's fine. Present it as a quick picture game. The goal is to hear their grammar, not to challenge their vocabulary.

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Don't score dialect as disorder

Rule-governed dialect features are not errors. In African American English, for example, these are common and expected:

• Zero copula or auxiliary: She tired, He eating
• Zero 3rd person -s: She run
• Zero possessive -s: the dog bone
• Regularized forms: He have a hat

Mark these D on the score sheet and count them as correct. For children learning English as a second language, compare their answers to what you'd expect given their English exposure, and talk with the family. When you aren't sure what's typical in a child's community, ask a trusted colleague before you score.

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From screening to next step

The score sheet leads you to one result:

• Refer for a full speech-language evaluation if any morpheme is at 0 or 1 of 3 past its age range, the error pattern is unusual, or the child is harder to understand than expected for their age.
• MTSS if one or more morphemes are at 2 of 3 past their age range, and none are at 0 or 1. Start targeted support, track progress, and re-screen in 3 to 4 months.
• Monitor if the only misses are on morphemes still within their age range. Re-screen in 3 to 4 months.
• Pass if all morphemes are solid, or the only differences are explained by the child's age, dialect, or language background.

The result is a suggestion. When in doubt, lean toward referring: over-identifying for an evaluation is safer than missing a child who needs one, and your clinical judgment can always override the score.

One important reminder: MTSS and RTI can't be used to delay or deny an evaluation when a disability is suspected (U.S. Department of Education, OSEP, 2011). If your screening raises a real concern, refer.

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Screening by video

The screener works through telepractice too.

• Screen-share the picture cards one at a time.
• Ask a facilitator, such as a parent or aide, to keep the child near the microphone.
• If you can't hear an ending clearly, especially final -s or -ed, ask the child to say it again rather than guessing. These small sounds are easy to lose over video.

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Get the free screener

👉 Download the free Brief Grammatical Morpheme Screener (PDF)

👉 Download the picture cards with prompts (PDF): the same 42 cards with each prompt printed small under the picture (never the answer), so you don't have to flip back to the script.

👉 Get the auto-scoring score sheet (Google Sheet): enter the child's age and each mark, and it checks every morpheme against the age ranges and suggests Refer, MTSS, Monitor, or Pass.

Pair it with the articulation screener, and you can screen both speech and grammar in one short session. Screen fast, document right away, and leave work at work.

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References

Berko, J. (1958). The child's learning of English morphology. Word, 14(2–3), 150–177. https://doi.org/10.1080/00437956.1958.11659661

Brown, R. (1973). A first language: The early stages. Harvard University Press.

Miller, J. F. (1981). Assessing language production in children: Experimental procedures. University Park Press.

Rice, M. L., Wexler, K., & Cleave, P. L. (1995). Specific language impairment as a period of extended optional infinitive. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 38(4), 850–863. https://doi.org/10.1044/jshr.3804.850

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. (2011). A response to intervention (RTI) process cannot be used to delay-deny an evaluation for eligibility under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (OSEP Memo 11-07, January 21, 2011). https://sites.ed.gov/idea/idea-files/osep-memo-11-07-response-to-intervention-rti-memo/