The evaluation usually takes one hour. If there's a topic your child loves to talk about, you should definitely take it to the evaluation and give it to the SLP. The SLP will start the session by asking you some questions about your child's background and your concerns about your child's speech development. Sometimes, indirect testing can feel more like a casual conversation, observation, or game than an evaluation; however, what the SLP actually does is use this time to learn more about how your child communicates.
Evaluating, describing, and interpreting a person's communication capacity requires the integration of a variety of information collected into the evaluation process. The information you provide will be vital for the SLP to understand your child's communication and any factors that may influence speech development. Formal evaluations vary in length and quantity; it depends on your child, the reason for the evaluation, and the time available. Evaluation refers to the procedures used by qualified personnel to determine a child's initial and continuing eligibility.
The SLP can provide you with some initial resources related to how best to support your child's communication skills, as well as discuss preliminary observations about the evaluation. Depending on the environment and your child's environment, a typical comprehensive evaluation can take between 1 and 3 hours. They may talk to you about future steps, such as starting speech and language services, returning for a follow-up appointment, or waiting a while to see how your child develops. The American Speech, Language, and Hearing Association (ASHA) is the national professional, scientific, and accrediting association with 228,000 members and affiliates who are audiologists; speech-language pathologists; speech, language, and hearing scientists; audiology and speech-language pathology support staff; and students.
This is a guide to ASHA documents and references to consider when conducting comprehensive speech and language assessments. Let's take an in-depth look at those questions and everything else you can expect in the evaluation, so you can get the most out of your child's speech evaluation.
