Valerie Said:

Speech therapy assessment?

We Answered:

My District usually uses the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals,which is apparently now in its 4th edition.

Karen Said:

The daycare says my child has delays according to an assessment they did, now what?

We Answered:

My son started speech therapy at 2 years old. If you feel that there might be issues, you should speak to his pediatrician and ask for a referral to an Early Intervention program. They can do age appropriate evaluations to see if he has any developmental or speech delays. I wouldn't worry too much about the day care's evaluation if your pediatrician does not feel that there are delays, though. Two year old children are notoriously hard to evaluate and diagnose due to short attention spans! Also, keep in mind that boys speak later than girls. If you are worried, push for the evaluation with EI.... but try not too be too concerned unless you notice no changes in his speech or behavior by the time he is 3.

Karen Said:

Speech therphy for my three year old...?

We Answered:

it depends on the speech therapist. I personally sat there while my son has had all of his speech evaluations, But I have heard of people who were asked to leave the room.

Basically they will show him pictures and ask him questions about it, maybe read a story, stuff like that. By 3 years old thier intelligability should be pretty high. My son has apraxia...he cannot move his tongue ( no, it is not tied). His inteligability, after 9 months of speech therapy, was about 68% in known context. It was closer to 50% or less when the context was not known. Personally for me it was closer to 75%. He goes to the speech therapist 2x per week and plays games and does flash cards and things like that. She helps him practice saying the words correctly. He actually really enjoys it and has made great progress.

Think of it this way...if he gets speech therapy the rest of the world will know that your son is smart ( I know you know it). It will improve his confidence, and he may learn skills that he can use as he gets older. My son relied heavily on ASL for about 4 months...now it is so ingrained in him that he uses some of the signs without thinking for clarification or emphasis.