Preparing 2yo for Speech Eval.

[SkylarVT]

My 25 month old DS was referred by his Ped for a hearing test and speech evaluation based on my concerns about his development. DS has maybe 10 words that he uses occasionally although most of the time he just uses Mama, Dada and dat, (that), while pointing or miming his needs.
Can anyone that has had a speech eval done tell me what the evaluation consist of and give me any tips on how to prepare DS? He is a pretty happy, easy going little person most of the time, but he is a little slow to warm up to strangers and I am concerned that if they try to touch him that he will freak out. He also seems to have a random toy phobia so he may be scared of some of the puppets, (we have had to remove several dog toys from the house that he would point at and cry, and he is terrified of a toy squirrel cat toy at my friend's house). He also doesn't like when strangers make eye contact with him . . . . and now that I am listing this stuff I am really concerned that this is not going to go well! We already did the hearing test and we didn't really get anything out of it because they had a blinky, talking cat statue in the booth and he lost it and was too freaked out to cooperate for the rest of the test. Thanks!

[betsyj]

We just had one and there were no puppets involved. Also, the therapist was not overbearing in the least - she is used to dealing with kids with different kinds of disabilities so she went slowly and at Jack's comfort level.

In ours they had a booklet that detailed various exercises that my son enjoyed. Each chapter was a bunch of developmentally appropriate responses and they keep going age wise until the child can't do any of the tasks. Not to frustration mind you, just using each milestone as a marker of where your specific child is.

My son eventually clammed up and only would smile shyly at the therapist.

But, she learned a lot from my feedback about what was going on at home, and watching how my son played with and talked to some different toys. I think we both found it enjoyable.

[SkylarVT]

Thanks, the receptionist mentioned that they might play with puppets when I asked her for details about how the eval would go, so hopefully they can do the eval without them. She did say that they are used to all kinds of children, so maybe I am making too much of this. I was just surprised by how badly the hearing test went. I am glad to hear that you and your son enjoyed the process.

[Dov'sMom]

Could you talk about what kinds of props they need and bring things from home that he's comfortable with?

[tbone_kneegrabber]

You can just say "he's scared of puppets" and then they won't use puppets, its not a manadtory speech related thing, ya know

They will probably talk with for a while first, ask you questions, have you fill out forms, let your ds get comfortable.

Are you going there or are they coming to your house? Most early intervention programs will send someone to your house (one of the main reasons being that children do better when they are comfortable).

i would just say "we are going to see this person (name) and play some games with them" that's mostly what it is. And SLP work with all kinds of kids, so they (should) be used to all of the things you mentioned and more.

[SkylarVT]

Originally Posted by Dov'sMom

Could you talk about what kinds of props they need and bring things from home that he's comfortable with?

That's a great idea! I will call and check.

[SkylarVT]

[QUOTE=
Are you going there or are they coming to your house? Most early intervention programs will send someone to your house (one of the main reasons being that children do better when they are comfortable).

i would just say "we are going to see this person (name) and play some games with them" that's mostly what it is. And SLP work with all kinds of kids, so they (should) be used to all of the things you mentioned and more.[/QUOTE]

We are going to their office. It's not going through EI, it's through our health insurance.
Unfortunately, I think my son is delayed enough on receptive language, (or hearing, not sure), that he doesn't understand when I tell him that we are going out to do something. I always explain what we are going to be doing every day, but he doesn't really understand much beyond "get your shoes". Although I am struggling because I really don't know what's developmentally normal here. My 4.5yo DD who is most likely gifted was speaking full paragraphs before 18 months, and able to tell me where she wanted to go complete with directions by age two, ("the park is this way and then you have to turn left at the street that has the horse sign").

[Kayaking Mama]

I'm an SLP. I can give you an idea of what I would do to evaluate a 25-month old. Primarily, I would be talking with you, finding out about his developmental history, and completing a parent questionnaire about his understanding and use of language. I would play with the child, observe what he does and what he says, and I might very gently see if he would try imitating any new words or sounds. With a child that age, I focus much more on what the parent is telling me--I don't expect the child to be able to participate. If I can get the child to play with me a bit I'm happy.

[SkylarVT]

Originally Posted by Kayaking Mama

I'm an SLP. I can give you an idea of what I would do to evaluate a 25-month old. Primarily, I would be talking with you, finding out about his developmental history, and completing a parent questionnaire about his understanding and use of language. I would play with the child, observe what he does and what he says, and I might very gently see if he would try imitating any new words or sounds. With a child that age, I focus much more on what the parent is telling me--I don't expect the child to be able to participate. If I can get the child to play with me a bit I'm happy.

Thank you! That was exactly what I was looking for. I was concerned that the SLP wouldn't be able to do the evaluation at all if DS wasn't able to cooperate.

[bluejaunte]

My 26 month old was evaluated today. He's at the tail end of a phase of SEVERE (screaming) stranger anxiety, and there were 3 strangers in his house today for it (!) so I figured it was a lost cause.

He was AWESOME. Took him a few minutes to warm up but then he was flirting with them, playing along -- even did a couple of things for them that he's never done for me!

They did have to knock some points off of a few areas in the evaluation because he'd been performing for half an hour and he was getting bored, so he refused to do some things he knows darn well how to do (point to body parts, etc).

Just my $0.02. They're unpredictable little creatures. Here I was prepared for torture and he loved it!