Diagnostic Assessments

Purpose of Assessment

An initial assessment is often required to gain an understanding of your child’s current language and communication skills and identify areas of difficulty. This enables the Speech Pathologist to formulate therapy goals specific to your child’s needs. Assessment reports also provide information for other professionals working with your child. Teachers may be able to use the recommended strategies and adjustments for your child within the classroom. In addition, Paediatricians and/or Psychologists may request a speech and language assessment as part of collecting information about a child’s functioning, in order to better understand his/her needs.

Assessment Guidelines

Children of different ages and abilities require different types of assessment. This will impact how long it takes to complete an initial assessment. Prior to your appointment the Speech Pathologist will contact you to gather some background information about your child, his/her needs and areas of concern. Based on this information we can identify which assessments would be most appropriate for your child. The guidelines below provide a list of areas commonly assessed by Speech Pathologists. Please note, to determine an overall picture of your child’s functioning, information gathered through observing and talking with you and your child can be just as important as the information gathered from more formalized assessment.

Some children may require two areas to be assessed, for example, a child who is presenting with a speech sound disorder and co-occurring language difficulties will require two assessments. For younger children and children with more complex communication difficulties the assessment sessions may be more informal and play-based, incorporating the use of checklists and qualitative observations about how your child communicates, rather than formal tasks.

Areas assessed

Early Speech and

Language Development

Children aged 1-3 years considered “Late Talkers”. Children who may not be using as much verbal communication as expected.

Receptive and Expressive

Language skills

Preschool children -aged 3-5 years old and school age children -5+, where communication difficulties may be interfering with their participation and social interaction in different contexts, often leading to frustration, as well as impacting on their ability to access the curriculum and learn.

Speech Sound

Disorders

Children who may be hard to understand because they appear to be mispronouncing words or ‘switching sounds around’.

Literacy

Children experiencing difficulty acquiring literacy skills and/or children falling behind their peers with regards to their spelling, writing and reading abilities.

Social Language

Children with difficulties understanding social rules and expectations, reading people’s body language and making friends.

Feeding Skills

Children experiencing difficulties with feeding as a result of oro-motor and/or sensory difficulties, leading to inadequate nutritional intake as well as stressful family meal times.

All Assessments include the following:

Parent Interview and discussion of observations of your child’s functioning and needs at home/school.
Reviewing previous medical/allied health/psychological reports to gain a better understanding of your child’s needs.
Approximately 2 sessions with the Speech Pathologist which may include formal and/or informal assessment of your child’s communication skills. Please note, a full literacy assessment will require approximately 4 sessions.
Scoring and analysis of assessment results.
Formulation of specific goals suited to your child’s individual needs.
Recommendations to support your child’s communication at home/school/ kindergarten.
Electronic and hard copies of a detailed assessment report provided to you and other important stakeholders.
Feedback session with parent-face-to -face, tele-conference or phone call as requested/preferred.