Speech and language assessment – what to expect from your speech pathologist
Why does my child need an assessment?
A speech and language assessment is completed at the start of therapy to find out your concerns for your child, what skills they already have and what skills they may need to work on. From here, your speech pathologist can work with you to put together a comprehensive set of goals to help your child get improve their skills.
If this sounds like what you need, you’ve made the decision to see how your child’s communication skills are developing – this is a big step! But what happens next?
From here, you can call our friendly Family Experience Officers at any of our clinics. They will discuss your concerns and explain the assessment process to you. They will work with you to find an appointment time for your assessment. All new clients to our practice will need to undergo an assessment with us. If you have had an assessment recently (up to six months prior to requesting for our services), we may not require a comprehensive new assessment. To find out what your child needs, please contact us for a speech therapy for kids. A new client initial assessment may still be necessary, as we need to ensure we gain a holistic picture of your child and understand the concerns and goals you have for them.
We complete assessments for infants, children and adolescents in the following areas:
- Speech sounds (saying sounds clearly)
- Language (understanding and talking skills)
- Literacy
- Fluency/stuttering
- Social communication
- Feeding
- Alternative and augmentative communication (AAC)
A preschool assessment is completed over a one-hour session. A school-aged assessment is completed over 2x one-hour sessions. During these sessions, the speech pathologist will:
- Collect a detailed case history with parents or caregiver
- Complete within session observations
- Complete psychometric language or literacy assessments and/or language or literacy screeners
- Go through your child’s results at the end of the session
Following the assessment session, the speech pathologist will:
- Gather information about your child from external key stakeholders such as teachers/day care educators (with parent permission)
- Complete a comprehensive report and goals list
During your first session, the speech pathologist will:
- Discuss the report
- Discuss goals, prognosis and a longer term plan to help your child develop their skills
- Start therapy
An assessment is the starting point to ensure therapy is successful, efficient and cost-effective for your family.