Our Process
Here's How to Take the First Steps to Begin
Consultation
This is a time for you to do a meet and greet with us, and discuss any outside paperwork or evaluations that were completed by other treatment facilities, schools, medical doctors, etc. and discuss the plan of care for your child. In some cases, a comprehensive speech-language evaluation may or may not be recommended following the outcome of the consultation. This is also a great opportunity to see if we are a good fit for you and your family! Consultations are typically not covered by insurance companies for reimbursement.
The Evaluation Process
Initial intake
After you make contact with our office, a brief phone conversation will take place to give us an idea of what your concerns are for your child, inform us of previous evaluations and/or therapies your child has been a part of in the past, and schedule the initial consultation or evaluation. You will then be requested to complete office forms and return them prior to your appointment.
On the day of evaluation:
Paperwork Review & Behavioral Observation
Review submitted paperwork (e.g. case history, etc.). This discussion between parent and SLP also allows your child to get comfortable with the examiner and new environment without having the spotlight on him/her in those first few minutes. The examiner will be making observations of your child at all times while speaking with you to ensure we get the best information about your child's performance.
Oral Motor Assessment
The next activity to help your child ease into testing is snack time. We really want your child to be as comfortable as possible by the time we do any testing, and who isn’t motivated by someone giving them food! This will be food that you bring from home. While your child eats, the SLP is observing his/her oral motor skills. The mouth muscles used for eating are the same ones used for talking. We will assess how your child's mouth moves during non-speech tasks to differentiate between purposeful and non-purposeful oral movements.
Formal Assessment
This will involve administration of a play-based or standardized assessment(s) to see how your child's speech-language skills measure up to other children his/her age. It may include an articulation assessment, a receptive and expressive language assessment and may also include other tests based on the specific areas of concern for your child were (e.g. stuttering, auditory processing, etc.)
Recommendations
Your SLP will review her preliminary findings with you about your child's performance and make recommendations on whether to pursue ongoing treatment based on those findings. Additional evaluations may be recommended if there were concerns identified during this session that fall out of the scope of practice for a SLP (e.g. Ear Nose Throat doctor, Occupational Therapist, etc.)