Question about upcoming speech ev

[triplea598]

We're scheduled for ECI to come over on the 27th for DS' speech evaluation. I didn't get that much information over the phone, so I wanted to ask any of you that have experience...what can or should I expect?

DS is 16 months old and has no words. No mama or dada. Sometimes it sounds like he'll attempt to say "dog," but it comes out as "da." He also will look at videos of himself, or his reflection in the mirror and babble "bababa" (not sure if it's just babbling or if he's trying to say "baby"). So basically, he mostly babbles "bababa" and "dadada" with seemingly no real meaning behind it.
He doesn't point. He doesn't seem to understand instructions or when we ask him where something/what something is. He does wave, and can sort of sign for "eat," except he'll sometimes sign "eat." Like, he knows when we say "eat" to make the sign, but he doesn't correlate "eat" with eating food, if that makes any sense.

Sorry this got to be so long. I'm just sort of nervous for the eval and wanted to know any of your experiences if you went through your Early Childhood Intervention Program. TIA!

[harti09]

EI evaluations are very relaxed. She/He will 'play' with your son and go through a series of activities, while asking you some quesitons.

Just let it happen and voice your concerns as needed.

[Deleted]

Agreed with harti09 on this. The hardest thing is to keep your mouth shut and not answer for your child, IME. I literally had to sit on my hands and bite my lip the first sessions with DS1.

Remember, it is an evaluation, not a judgement. They are there to help.

[namastebiotches]

Jan 19, 2015 4:04:21 GMT -5 harti09 said:

EI evaluations are very relaxed. She/He will 'play' with your son and go through a series of activities, while asking you some quesitons.

Just let it happen and voice your concerns as needed.

This pretty much. Just lots of questions & they'll have a few things theyll do with LO.

[BostonKisses]

Jan 19, 2015 4:04:21 GMT -5 harti09 said:

EI evaluations are very relaxed. She/He will 'play' with your son and go through a series of activities, while asking you some quesitons.

Just let it happen and voice your concerns as needed.

That's how ours went, too. You should also have answers fast. Ours were same day, because they scored everything as soon as they were done, and gave the feedback before they left.

[triplea598]

Thanks everyone! Glad to hear that they are relaxed.

[numbbears]

Our eval started out with a bunch of paperwork, then a few paper assessments (one was comparing him to other kids his age, an autism eval, and a longer eval that just looked at his development), then the woman that was in charge of the evaluation played with DS. After that, they scored everything up, told me where he was delayed, and had me pick therapists. It took maybe an hour and half and it was very relaxed.

Hope it goes well!

[megara4]

No other advice than what has been given, but want to send good thoughts that it all goes well for you and that you get some answers and plan in place for moving forward.

[salemkitty]

Two people came to the house. They asked me about my concerns, they did some activities with him while asking me questions about what he could and could not do. I was nervous but they were nice and DS enjoyed the attention. They called me back the next day (I think) to go over results but they told me before they left the eval that they felt he'd qualify.

I will say though DS was younger and they were testing in all areas not just speech. He is delayed in speech though and gets services for it from a teacher. In my area you don't get a speech therapist until closer to their 2nd burthday.

I hope it goes well and isn't too stressful for you or your LO. Keep us updated. Lots of hugs!!

[Stormtroopooper]

We are about to get an audio & speech eval done with HC, and they are also going to set him up with occupational therapy. I'm nervous because I'm not sure what to expect either.

[triplea598]

Jan 21, 2015 13:47:45 GMT -5 Stormtroopooper said:

We are about to get an audio & speech eval done with HC, and they are also going to set him up with occupational therapy. I'm nervous because I'm not sure what to expect either.

We just had his appointment with the audiologist this morning. It went well, and was pretty stress-free.

First the audiologist looked in DS' ears. Then, he did the hearing test they do for newborns. Lastly, the doctor had me and DS go into a booth with a nurse...DS is too little for the headphones, but they used the speakers and used cues such as turning his head and looking towards the noise(s) to test him.

The booth test was a little difficult for the doctor to get a completely accurate result since DS didn't want to sit still in my lap, but overall DS passed everything. Now we'll just have a follow-up appointment with the audiologist in 6 months to make sure everything's still looking good, and I have to have them fax the results over to ECI so that they have it for DS' speech eval on Tuesday.

[mcribster]

I think we had 3 people come- OT,PT and Speech. It was fun and I learned a lot about my son in the process. Good luck!