Speech therapy evaluation

amycathy

Hi all! My son is 18-months and has his speech therapy evaluation on Monday. Can you give me some guidance as what to expect. He had lots of EI's during the 1st year of life so we are hoping that is all that is delaying his speech but I'm still concerned and pushed for this appt.

Thanks! 

finsup

They are going to look for vocabulary, articulation, receptive and expressive language.  Now my DS wasn't evaluated until afater age 2 so I don't have experience on how the eval goes for younger kiddos but I can tell you my experience.  

In my experience the Speech evals are mostly done with the evaluator and she has a flip book of different pictures.  So they may start by having a picture of a car and asking him what it is.  Or there will be a group of 3 pictures and they will ask him to point to which one the car is. 

They also might have a few different toys and will ask him to play with the toys - ie give the stuffed monkey a drink etc.

As for the EI's - did your DS get tubes put in or has he had a hearing test?  If you can, I would suggest getting the hearing test before the speech eval, so you can rule that out right off the bat. 

GL!

amycathy

He had tubes in May but they did a hearing test before that and said that to him it sounded like everything was under water. Our followup hearing test is next month, they wanted us to wait 4 months (not sure why).

 

Thanks for the info, i'm hoping it goes pretty smooth and we get some answers on Monday. The pedi feels he is okay but I just need a second opinion on this one.

macchiatto

I agree with getting a hearing test first if you haven't already.

Alex was 2.5 when he finally had his speech eval. His eval actually mostly involved the SLP going through a loooong questionnaire with me about his background and language skills, discussing the nature of my concerns (which was more feeding therapy-related but we also had some concerns about possible echolalia), her observing him playing and talking to him a little bit. His speech eval when he was evaluated by the school system involved more of the showing him cards and having him name objects but the one through EI didn't really involve that.

Assembly_Reqd

Our speech assessment was asking me a lot of questions and a small part of interaction with Nate. At the time he had only about 5 spoken words.

As far as being delayed in speech due to a hearing loss and not something else, you also need to consider your child's "hearing age" instead of their chronological age for expected speech outcomes.

For example: Nate got hearing aids at three months old and we got some confirmation they were working correctly through followup testing. Therefore I had to adjust my speech expectations for him by three months. I then had to adjust them further because at 18 months he got tubes. We didn't have evidence of a conductive component until then, so as far as I know, he's had a conductive loss since birth.

It is great that you are being proactive vs. reactive in the speech department. Keep up the good work. He may just need a little bit more "listening" experience before he gets the talking going.

amycathy

Assembly_Reqd:

Our speech assessment was asking me a lot of questions and a small part of interaction with Nate. At the time he had only about 5 spoken words.

As far as being delayed in speech due to a hearing loss and not something else, you also need to consider your child's "hearing age" instead of their chronological age for expected speech outcomes.

For example: Nate got hearing aids at three months old and we got some confirmation they were working correctly through followup testing. Therefore I had to adjust my speech expectations for him by three months. I then had to adjust them further because at 18 months he got tubes. We didn't have evidence of a conductive component until then, so as far as I know, he's had a conductive loss since birth.

It is great that you are being proactive vs. reactive in the speech department. Keep up the good work. He may just need a little bit more "listening" experience before he gets the talking going.

 

Wow, I hadn't even thought about making an adjustment for the times he was sick and months of hearing issues. I can see how that would put us closer to a year and probably closer to where he is verbally now. I will make sure to look up the expectations for a 12-month old in the language skills to see how he fits.

 DS was born with a hand difference so I have had to push from the beginning to make sure we got all the support / therapy he needed; i guess pushing for the help with the speech is just because it's become second nature to me.

 Thanks for all y'all advice!

 

Amy 

amycathy

Assembly_Reqd:

Our speech assessment was asking me a lot of questions and a small part of interaction with Nate. At the time he had only about 5 spoken words.

As far as being delayed in speech due to a hearing loss and not something else, you also need to consider your child's "hearing age" instead of their chronological age for expected speech outcomes.

For example: Nate got hearing aids at three months old and we got some confirmation they were working correctly through followup testing. Therefore I had to adjust my speech expectations for him by three months. I then had to adjust them further because at 18 months he got tubes. We didn't have evidence of a conductive component until then, so as far as I know, he's had a conductive loss since birth.

It is great that you are being proactive vs. reactive in the speech department. Keep up the good work. He may just need a little bit more "listening" experience before he gets the talking going.

 

Wow, I hadn't even thought about making an adjustment for the times he was sick and months of hearing issues. I can see how that would put us closer to a year and probably closer to where he is verbally now. I will make sure to look up the expectations for a 12-month old in the language skills to see how he fits.

 DS was born with a hand difference so I have had to push from the beginning to make sure we got all the support / therapy he needed; i guess pushing for the help with the speech is just because it's become second nature to me.

 Thanks for all y'all advice!

 

Amy 

annibes

Generally a speech/language eval for 18 months will include a long list of questions for parents, some observation, and some attempts to engage the child in conversation or to hear how he/she sounds and what words the child is willing to say. The SLP might bring out some pictures, but will more likely have toys ready. Speech sounds themselves probably will not be a big focus in this evaluation.

The hearing age information is good, but I haven't really heard it in reference kids who do not have hearing aids or cochlear implants. The SLP will certainly make a note about the OM, though- it can be a huge factor.