Speech and language evaluation
Your child’s speech and language evaluation is a measurement of her communication skills, including speaking, listening and social language abilities. A hearing test is also part of any speech and language evaluation. Formal and informal tests and observations are involved in your child’s evaluation to help the clinician form judgments about how she performs compared with other children the same age on tasks such as:
- Understanding and use of different words
- Correct use of words in correctly formed sentences
- Use of language for different purposes
- Pronunciation of speech sounds
- Physical ability to produce speech
- Voice quality
- Fluency or smooth flow of speech
Communication skills that may be assessed
- Receptive vocabulary: What words does your child understand?
- Expressive vocabulary: What words does she use?
- Receptive language: How well does your child understand directions, the changes in meaning that come from different sentence structures (such as "Mother kissed the baby" versus "Mother is kissed by the baby") and age appropriate stories?
- Expressive language: How well can she express ideas using age appropriate sentence structures (such as verb tense, pronoun usage) for making requests and telling stories?
- Pragmatics or social language: How well has she mastered the rules of social language including:
o Using language for different purposes – such as greeting, informing, demanding, promising, and requesting;
o Adapting or changing language according to the needs or expectations of a listener or situation – such as talking differently to a baby than to an adult, giving enough background information to an unfamiliar listener, talking differently in a classroom than on a playground;
o Following rules for conversations and narratives (e.g., telling stories, recounting events of the day); such as taking turns in conversation, introducing topics of conversation and staying on the topic, and using nonverbal signals in conversation such as facial expressions, and eye contact. Rules may vary depending on language and culture.
- Auditory memory: How well does your child remember what is heard?
- Auditory discrimination: Can she hear small differences between words? (such as sing/sing versus sing/wing)
- Word finding: How easily can she think of words to use to form clear, concise sentences?
- Articulation: What speech sounds can your child make? How clear is her speech?
- Speech motor skills: The clinician conducts an “oral peripheral examination.” This includes observing your child’s face, lips, teeth, tongue, palate, and throat. It also includes observing how well she works in such activities as feeding, moving the tongue, moving the lips, or making alternating lip and tongue movements rapidly.
- Voice: The clinician listens for differences in voice quality, pitch and volume.
- Fluency: The clinician listens for sounds and words that are repeated or prolonged, hesitations, and fillers such as “um” and “uh.”
- Informal tasks: Informal tasks include talking with your child, having her discuss pictures, answer questions and tell simple stories. If your child is an infant or toddler, the clinician observes how she plays, how she uses objects and toys, and how well she understands words and requests.
Tips for growing good communicators
- Always look at your child when speaking to her. Sit or stoop down so you can look into her eyes and encourage her to do the same with you.
- Choose a space for talking that is removed from the distractions of TV or siblings or groups of children or adults who are talking or playing loudly.
- Use positive statements. Try to avoid the words "no", "don't" and others which can cause a strong reaction in her. Instead, state expectations clearly and instruct expected behavior by saying “I need for you to _______” or “Now it is time for ______” or “This is a time when __________.”
- Speak in a soft, calm voice.
- Speak in short sentences and pause between phrases of longer ones to give your child time to understand the entire message. For example, say “You need to finish your worksheet, (pause) so we can go outside and play” rather than “If you don’t finish your worksheet, you can’t go outside and play.”
- Ignore and remain neutral when disruptive or negative behaviors interrupt communication. Calmly state expectations; give a clear choice between self-controlled behavior and loss of privilege.
- Praise eye contact, speaking softly and other good communication behaviors as they occur to ensure that they become a habit. Say, “I like it when you look at me” or “You remembered to tell me in an inside voice. That was really nice.” High 5’s and a smile are good rewards for positive listening and talking.
- LISTEN…and let your child know that what she has to say is important to you. Thank her for sharing feelings and ideas.
- SMILE, PRAISE and be a good role model. Positive, respectful communication requires practice … but it’s well worth the time and effort. Have fun talking with your children!