Speech and Language Assessment
Comprehensive Speech and Language Assessment.
The purpose of a Speech therapy assessment is to help the child or young person to achieve or maintain their maximum level of independence and to develop practical life skills so that they reach their full potential in the home and classroom environment.
Speech and Language Comprehensive Assessment Process:
1. Initial Assessment: An initial interview is completed to gather all clinically penitent information relevant to the child. This will involve obtaining information such as: presenting concern and personal developmental history. This initial assessment procedure will enable the correct standardised assessment measures to be selected and incorporated within the assessment procedure, ensuring all relevant diagnostic outcomes are considered.
2. Standardised Assessments: You clinician will be able to explain which assessment is required to be administered to ensure all relevant diagnostic outcomes are explored.
3. Following on from the assessment a written report/summary will additionally be completed summarising all results and any diagnostic outcomes from the assessments which have been administered.
What is a Language Delay?
Some children have problems understanding, called receptive language. They may have trouble:
• Understanding what people mean when they use gestures, like shrugging or nodding
• Following directions
• Answering questions
• Pointing to objects and pictures
• Knowing how to take turns when talking with others
Some children have problems talking, called expressive language. They may have trouble:
• Asking questions
• Naming objects
• Using gestures
• Putting words together into sentences
• Learning songs and rhymes
• Using correct pronouns, like "he" or "they"
• Knowing how to start a conversation and keep it going
• Changing how they talk to different people and in different places. For example, you speak differently to an adult than a young child. You can talk louder outside than inside.
• Many children have problems with both understanding and talking.
Some children also have trouble with early reading and writing, such as:
• Holding a book right side up
• Looking at pictures in a book and turning pages
• Telling a story with a beginning, middle, and end
• Naming letters and numbers
• Learning the alphabet
• Reading and spelling words
Assessment of Language and Speech sound disorders
A Speech Pathologist can assess your child’s receptive, expressive and pragmatics (social) language skills. Assessment tools may vary due to your child’s age and presenting difficulty.
Children may say some sounds the wrong way as they learn to talk. They learn some sounds earlier, like p, m, or w. Other sounds take longer to learn, like z, v, or th.
Most children can say almost all speech sounds correctly by 4 years old. A child who does not say sounds by the expected ages may have a speech sound disorder. You may hear the terms "articulation disorder" and "phonological disorder" to describe speech sound disorders like this.
A speech pathologist can test your child's speech. The Speech Pathologist will listen to your child to hear how they says sounds. The Speech Pathologist also will look at how your child moves their lips, jaw, and tongue.
The Speech Pathologist can also help decide if you have a speech problem or speak with an accent. An accent is the unique way that groups of people sound. Accents are NOT a speech or language disorder.
What is stuttering?
All adults and children have times when they do not speak smoothly. Additions such as "uh" or "you know" are included in sentences. Or a sound or word may be said more than once. These are called disfluencies.
Children who stutter may have more disfluencies and different types of disfluencies. They may repeat parts of words (repetitions), stretch a sound out for a long time (prolongations), or have a hard time getting a word out (blocks). Stuttering may include tension and negative feelings about talking. Stuttering can change from day to day. There may be times when a child is fluent and times when they stutter more. Stress or excitement can lead to more stuttering.
Feeding and Swallowing Assessments
What is a feeding and swallowing difficulty or disorder?
Feeding difficulty is a broad term used to describe a variety of feeding or mealtime behaviours perceived as problematic for a child or family.
A swallowing difficulty or disorder is difficulty moving foods and liquids from the mouth to the stomach.
Feeding and swallowing difficulty behaviours may include
• Picky eating
• Food fussiness
• Food refusal
• Restricted variety of foods
• Limited, excessive or variable appetite
• Prolonged mealtimes
• Disruptive mealtime behaviours
• Coughing, gagging or choking
To some extent these behaviours are all considered to be part of typical feeding development and are usually transient. Children displaying a significant number of these behaviours or displaying a behaviour to a greater extent for a prolonged period may be considered to have a ‘Feeding Difficulty. In other words, it is not merely the presence of a behaviour but the severity and duration of behaviours that signifies a problem.
Assessment of feeding and swallowing
A Speech Pathologist will:
• Ask questions about your child's medical history, development, and the problems they have
• See how your child moves their mouth and tongue
• Watch your child eat to see how they picks up food, chews, swallows, and drinks
• Watch how your child behaves during meals
• Refer your child for specialist assessments as required