What to expect from speech evaluation?

[Latte Mama]

So at 18 months DS still has no words, I've posted before abou this months back. I'm not majorly worried but getting concerned. So we figured we might as well go ahead and get the evaluation done now just to be proactive. If it's nothing, great! But if there is something going on, I'd rather catch it early.

They're going to do a home visit and I have no idea what to expect. Anyone BTDT? Of course this means cleaning the house !

[kcstar]

Haven't BTDT, but we're starting the road with a visit to our pediatrician this week. At 30 months he has a lot of words, but he doesn't seem to know how to use them. When I get sentences, it's because he's singing a familiar song.

[elmh23]

The case manager, speech therapist and occupational therapist came and basically played with him for an hour. Ds was 16 months old and they asked me LOTS of questions (about everything from his birth, how well he nursed, what he was eating now, how was his walking) and saw if ds could stack blocks, identify pictures and a couple other things I can't remember (he's been in EI for about 20 months now and so he's had lots of evals and I can't remember what happened at the first one.)

It was very low pressure for ds. He was very shy and clung to me for about 15 minutes until they brought out a ball to see if he could kick it.

BTW, our only worry was speech (he didn't open his mouth to make sound, only had one little wimper sound that he did with his mouth closed) but they tested him for OT and PT since they were there.

[Honey693]

Originally Posted by elmh23

The case manager, speech therapist and occupational therapist came and basically played with him for an hour. Ds was 16 months old and they asked me LOTS of questions (about everything from his birth, how well he nursed, what he was eating now, how was his walking) and saw if ds could stack blocks, identify pictures and a couple other things

This was how ours went. It was basically playtime with a bunch of new toys for DD.

[Peony]

Originally Posted by Honey693

This was how ours went. It was basically playtime with a bunch of new toys for DD.

Agreed. It was the same when DD1 had her first speech eval. Now with DD2, I just asked my neighbor to come over for a cup of coffee, she is a speech therapist and she gave me a "informal" eval of DD2.

[Latte Mama]

Thank you! I pretty much figured it would be low key. It's just a little nerve wracking already when I read too many things online about speech disorders so I think I'm a little anxious.

[spiraldancer]

Good luck and try not to worry too much (online reading about problems can be very disturbing when you're fretting about something). Here's a story I hope reassures you. Ds 2, at 15 months, hardly says more than 4 words, but since ds1 didn't talk (at all!) until he was 3 and a bit. He did require a year or so of speech therapy to improve articulation (tongue tie), but quickly mastered all sounds. Ds1 is now a very bright, articulate, thoughtful boy, who just took his time in learning/wanting to talk.

[firewoman]

My third son did not speak other than "mama" until he was around 32 months old. We had him evaluated around 30 months and it was similar to what others have described. There were 2 other children and the therapist put the children and one parent each together in the same room with toys and evaluated them one on one. We were last and no other people were in the room. They showed hime picture cards and asked him if he knew what the diferent pictures were to try and get him to talk. They said he needed therapy at that time. We were placed on a waiting list for three months before a spot opened. He went to two sessions before his language just exploded. I think it would have without the sessions. He just had to get there. He probably could have used more speech therapy, but we didn't take him and now his speech is completely normal. He is 5 years old.

Try not to worry too much. I think 18 months is pretty young and some little ones just don't talk much at that age.