Speech Evaluation

[Stormtroopooper]

HC has a speech/audio eval on Thursday. I'm really nervous about it.

His ped said he is showing some signs of delay, and from what I've read on the internet, it's not uncommon for children with visual disabilities to have speech delays.

Has anyone else had an evaluation? I'm not sure what to expect. It's not a home eval. We'll actually be taking him to the clinic.

Also, I'm curious as to where everyone else within his age group is regarding speech. How many words does your child say? I know HC knows a lot of words, but he just doesn't say them. He jabbers a lot in his own language, but only says a few words with meaning.

I'm worried he won't do well on the eval because he is incredibly stubborn and almost never does anything you ask him to. You have to coax the crap out of him to get him to participate in any sort of recall activity.

Any thoughts or advice?

[booksntea]

We had an EI evaluation at home. It was kind of fun for LO. It was all play based type stuff and they were super nice. We haven't had our hearing test yet though so I am not sure how that will go.
I wouldn't worry to much, the worst part for me was the anticipation. I felt very relieved once LO was evaluated and he was getting the attention he needed.

[Deleted]

We asked this at our 18 month check and out pedi was ok with her babbling and only having a few words since it was clear she understood us. She did want to see more words by 2.

Try to stay off Dr. Google and relax. ?

[cnj]

No advice, but fx he cooperates for you!

[Deleted]

Feb 2, 2015 20:34:50 GMT -5 @jacks605 said:

We asked this at our 18 month check and out pedi was ok with her babbling and only having a few words since it was clear she understood us. She did want to see more words by 2.

Try to stay off Dr. Google and relax. ?

[b

No clue where that smily came from. I swear I had a normal smily face.

[cnj]

Feb 2, 2015 21:47:53 GMT -5 @jacks605 said:

Feb 2, 2015 20:34:50 GMT -5 @jacks605 said:

We asked this at our 18 month check and out pedi was ok with her babbling and only having a few words since it was clear she understood us. She did want to see more words by 2.

Try to stay off Dr. Google and relax. ?

[b

No clue where that smily came from. I swear I had a normal smily face.

Every smiley shows up like that on PB for some reason.

[mtnmomma13]

DS says a bunch of words (animals, colors, food, a few names) but I'd say about half are understandable to people other than DH and me. Our pedi said this was normal at the 18m visit and said around age 2 was when we would really do more assessment (unless I was concerned before).

[emmy236]

I feel like people say their LOs can do so much more than R but then when I meet the kid I don't hear or see any of it. R probably has 20 words we really understand including mommy, daddy, nana, papa, etc. he knows please, sit, dog, baby, blue, yellow, red, purple, bus, car, choo choo, juice, no, yes, good, uh oh, outside and his name. He tried to put some together. Like when we saw a puppy he said "coco's baby" and he'll say "mommy daddy sit!" He still likes to use his signs a lot. We are constantly trying to get him to say letters and numbers but he just has zero interest. I hope that helps and good luck with your eval and I'm sure he'll do great!

[Stormtroopooper]

Yeah. Today was terrible. I'm incredibly frustrated.

This clinic was a hole in the wall place. The things they stuck in his ears didn't look clean. The Dr's fingernails weren't clean. The "room" where we went for his speech evaluation was a closet full of filing cabinets and a tiny table, chair, and book for HC. The evaluator didn't even try to interact with HC. She asked me questions, jotted down some notes, and said the exact same thing his ped told me over the phone: "it sounds like he's experiencing some delay." But apparently he's not delayed enough for a referral. Then she asked for $200, which I didn't pay.

I called his ped, sat on hold for 25 minutes to leave a message for his Dr. Requesting another evaluation.

I'm just beyond irritated, frustrated and sick. I wasted a lot of time going to these people.

[Deleted]

That sucks. Hope your pedi can give you better info or a more legit referral.

[Stormtroopooper]

They called this morning and are getting him set up with a speech clinic. I'm hoping the next evaluation goes a lot better.

[kcwnc]

I'm hoping this one goes better for you guys too. I hope you don't have to pay for lack of them providing actual services.

[nissad]

glad to hear they were able to set you up with another clinic. Hope this one is better than the last.

[fancefpp]

Have you called Early Intervention? I might have missed this. I'm not sure what state you are in but we had a great experience with DS1. It's free (at least in our state) until they are three.

[Stormtroopooper]

Feb 7, 2015 7:57:46 GMT -5 fancefpp said:

Have you called Early Intervention? I might have missed this. I'm not sure what state you are in but we had a great experience with DS1. It's free (at least in our state) until they are three.

Our ped never mentioned it. I just recently found out about it. I may call on Monday and ask if they think he'd qualify.

[fancefpp]

Definitely call....they do the eval at your house and evaluate them in all areas, not just speech. It's fun for the kid too...play based. We qualified for speech and had a SLP come to our house once a week for a year then he didn't qualify anymore because he was caught up.

[3timemom]

I also know it's not the same but a lot of school districts have parents as teachers and they come to your hours and they can help evaluate them and suggests other programs/help get them into preschool programs. It's basically them coming and playing with your child, then they do hearing evals, and other evals just during their normal visits by interacting with the kids.

[mtnmomma13]

That sucks the eval didn't go well. I hope your next one (or the EI) goes better and you get some good info.

[Stormtroopooper]

He is set up for EI this coming Monday. I hope it goes well. We are in a major fit - throwing stage right now.

[Deleted]

Good luck!

[fancefpp]

Good luck! EI was so helpful for us

[Stormtroopooper]

*Update!*

Lord have mercy. It has been a crazy four weeks.

HC FINALLY had his EI eval last week.

We had to keep pushing everything back because he got RSV which turned into a double ear infection, then my grandmother passed away very suddenly, I picked up something from the hospital and was sick for a week, then my husband got it, and then we had snow and ice for two weeks...in the south (which basically means total shut down).

The eval went well. HC does have a 25% delay in speech/communication, so he will start receiving therapy through EI for that starting next week (hopefully). We will do all his paperwork this afternoon.

I'm very glad that I pushed for a second opinion and that I checked with EI per your suggestions! Thanks for all your help!