Speech Evaluation- 2 year old?

[puffkin]

Fresh off of our 2 year old check up with the pediatrician and he is referring my son for a speech evaluation. I had brought up my concerns at the appt and when the Doctor really started to talk to my son, he heard the same things I did and made the referral. What kind of tests do they do on a 2 year old?

We (myself and doctor) think his hearing is fine because he responds to commands and repeats things if you ask him to. It is mainly a clarity issue....he says tons of words but you can't understand most of what he says (well, we do usually because we know what he is saying but others don't). Our daycare provider also was concerned because the other 2 year olds have a smaller vocabulary than him but are much easier/clearer to understand.

So what can I expect at the speech screening?

 

[piglet too]

When we took our DD5 for her eval 2 years ago, it was a big group thing as our district has special days that they do this. Anyways, we played in the main room until they called her. She was taken into another room where they talked to her, playing games to get her to interact more. This is all done by the speech pathologist so they know what to look for. She was diagnosed with a problem and started speech classes. Fortunately, after a year of classes, she met all her goals and was done with the program.

ETA ~ Where will you be going? Does your local school district offer a program and screening? Ours does and it was all free, well paid for with tax dollars really.

 

[jrmasm]

Did the Dr do a hearing test? Sometimes they can't pronounce words correctly because they don't hear them correctly.

 

[jbmom]

The first thing the dr. wanted my youngest so to have done was a hearing test. Even though he thought there were no hearing problems, he wanted to be positive. After that we were referred to our school based program where he would work with a speech pathologist once a week and a group once a week. He quickly met all his goals and now at age 6 never stops talking and is very clear in his speech.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

The therapist will play with the baby for awhile. Look for things like pointing toward desired items, watching body language to communicate desire for toys, imitation skills (ie if I clap will the baby clap, if I make a funny face will the baby copy) He/She will try to get some words out them -- see if they know their name, if they will say Ma Ma if they point at you and ask "who is that" -- Maybe sing a common song like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and see if the baby will sing along

Alot of it will be an interview of you -- does the child do this, does the child do that. It goes on and on.

I'd ask for the whole work-up -- Speech and Developmental evaluations.

 

[mjkacmom]

It's been a few years, so I can't remember exactly what they did. I had my ds evaluated through our county, and I remember he seemed to enjoy it. They will also probably be evaluating for other issues, too - one stop shopping. My ds received ST for 1 1/2 years in our home, and it was the best! Not only did it work wonders, but he LOVED it.

 

[TinkerbEllnor]

My DS had an evaluation done at 21 months.

The speech therapist and another person (I forget her specialty) came to my home to do the evaluation. Basically, they sat on the living room floor and played with DS for awhile, and asked questions of me on the side as they played. Not just play, but play they could evaluate- "let's color" (but I'm really checking to see how you hold a crayon, if you know your colors, etc) They evaluated him for delays in a whole gamut of things, not just the speech as he was referred for- they checked physical development and gross motor skills, as well as fine motor skills, swallowing, and receptive and expressive speech. I think it took about 1 1/2 hrs. He ended up with a delay in expressive speech but not receptive (if you said "where's the dog" on a page of pictures, he could point it out, but couldn't say "dog") We had ST 2xweek for 15 months (until he was 3) and then felt he had caught up enough.

Now he does NOT shut up, I kid you not!

 

[puffkin]

The doctor referred us to the speech pathologist group associated with the hospital. He said they were an excellent group. He checked what insurance I had first then he decided to refer us there. I was surprised it wasn't the Intermediate Unit (the county-wide organization that supports all the school distrticts here for these type of things). But I have a friend who works there and she said they are just swamped.....so maybe he went the other route since I have good insurance and will get in quicker.

He also said that they would make the determination if he should get a hearing test.

 

[Bunchkin]

My son was evaluated at around the age of 3 1/2. He was missing consonants and mixing them up with other letters. We knew what he was saying most of the time but other people had a hard time understanding him. And he was smart and getting really frustrated with us asking him over and over again to repeat what he was saying. Poor kiddo!

We actually are in the same co-op school district for speech as piglet too , so DS went through the same testing.
They really interact with the kids and asses from there if any other testing is needed. My DS went through 3 seperate evaluations before he was placed in a speech class. They used games, play time, asked to recognized picture cards, all kids of activities to evaluate.
I found the experience to go really well for my son.


He was placed in an appropriate speech class for his needs right after the holiday break and in 5 months he completed the class and met his goals. He did not need to continue the class.

He then went on to pre-school the following fall and is now in kindergarten and doing really well. It's amazing how much of a change took place in his speech in just the short amount of time he spent in speech class.
And now you cannot tell there was ever an issue.

 

[Nicolepa]

The place my son goes for speech therapy they will not test for speech issues until a hearing test has been done. My son has a very, very minor hearing loss. If you didn't know he had it, you'd think he just wasn't paying attention or acting up just because, (when actually he's frustrated bc he can't clearly hear what's going on). Even though his loss is very minor it affected his speech greatly. When we finally started speech at 3 he was at about 50% understandablilty for his age. Now 2 years later he is at 85-90%.

So please don't rule out a hearing problem. My last pediatrican wouldn't refer me to a specialist because his vocabulary (once he decided to start talking at 2-2.5) was great.

As for going thru the district. If you have good insurance I would go privatly. If you can get int he district, do that as well, but the bar for the schools are so low that it's very, very hard to get in. Here you have to be under 50% understandability to qualify and their standards are 2 years behind everything I've been read told. For example, my private Speech clinic says that they should master their R's by 5. The district says 7 1/2. Private Therapy is 1 on 1. Our district is 2-3 kids, minimum, at a time.

 

[froglady]

As for going thru the district. If you have good insurance I would go privatly. If you can get int he district, do that as well, but the bar for the schools are so low that it's very, very hard to get in. Here you have to be under 50% understandability to qualify and their standards are 2 years behind everything I've been read told. For example, my private Speech clinic says that they should master their R's by 5. The district says 7 1/2. Private Therapy is 1 on 1. Our district is 2-3 kids, minimum, at a time.

I went the private route, also. According to the therapist, who also did classes for the county, my son did not meet (or barely met) the county guidelines for therapy, and probably would not have been treated, although anyone other than immediate family could not understand what he was saying.

His evaluatiion also included a hearing test and examination by a ENT doctor.

 

[Thats_for_Shore]

When my DS was 2 - 2 1/2, he hardly talked at all. And it was mostly in baby babble.

But he speaks fine now. He has an older brother that did all the talking for him, so he started talking much later than he should have.

Here's to hoping that nothings wrong.

 

[disneyfanx3]

I just had my son evaluated for speech he is also 2 years old. This is how they did it they sent a speech therapist and a behavior specialist and on group leader to my house they played with my son and evaluated him and they asked me a lot of questions about him. Then they computed the numbers to see where he stood and he was a little speech delayed. NOw the speech therapist comes to my house once a week. I can already see a difference in the two weeks he has been in the program.

They also suggested I take him for a hearing test - just to rule that out and he passed that

 

[meb7]

My twins both had speech starting at two. They both had to do hearing test & the speech eval. We had a to go to a children's hosp speech place and they played w/ each boy and listened to what & how they said things. And they asked me a ton of questions. We qualified and from 2 to 3 they came to my house once a week. Then at 3 one of my boys started going to the school system. The other one was discharged of services at that point.

 

[Sleepy]

Did the Dr do a hearing test? Sometimes they can't pronounce words correctly because they don't hear them correctly.

This would have been my first suggestion. My son started out hearing fine when he was a baby, but years of constant ear infections left him with alot of problems. He seemed completely normal at age 2. He was able to follow directions, etc, but the only thing he could say was "bah". We were totally baffled. Got him an appt with a specialist at the Children's Hospital and they did a hearing test and sent him to the local school district to get an additional evaluation. Even after they told us what was wrong, we still did not believe them.
Basically, our son only heard parts of the words and read our lips and body movements to make up the rest of the word. So, even though we said, "Go get the ball", to him it was like listening to a phone conversation where it keeps cracking in and out. He was watching us point, etc for the rest of the clues. This explained why everything he said was "bah". He could not even say "mama"

We had tubes put in his ears and within a week, his speech was crystal clear and he had an overhwelming vocabulary.

 

[merekc]

My DS5 was diagnosed from birth with mild hearing loss in both ears (thanks to state required newborn testing). He has worn hearing aids since he was 4 months old (the most expensive teething toys you've ever seen - I can laugh about it now). When he is not wearing his hearing aids, you would never know he has hearing loss. We could have gone either way with the aids but this was to minimize/prevent speech problems.

I would absolutely get your son's hearing tested. With both hearing tests and speech tests, they basically play different games that help them identify the areas of concern.

I agree with the person who said the school district's standards are too low. DS5 received speech services until age 3 through county programs. The school district then said he was not behind and therefore didn't qualify for their services. I argued it and said they were setting him up to fail because he should automatically qualify due to the hearing loss. I lost that battle and now he is being evaluated again, because now they think there are issues. Hmmm, we called that one. Very frustrating.

 

[maddiemom]

I am a speech pathologist and while I primarily work with adults, I have a good understanding of speech development in children.

First things first, if I were evaluating a 2 year old I would want some sort of formal hearing test. They modify the typical hearing test to meet the attention and ability to respond of a two year old. Even though a child appears to hear at speech frequencies and can follow directions, there could be a problem.

The assessment is pretty informal for a two year old. We can gain a lot of information from playing with a child. The SLP may have them repeat or try to name certain items or pictures then track the exact errors made. They will likely look at language as well even if it sounds like it might not be a problem. If you have concerns and the doctor agrees, it certainly won't hurt to have the assessment done. You can learn a lot about speech and language development from the SLP which will help you help your child! Good luck!

 

[ilisao]

I just had my son evaluated for speech he is also 2 years old. This is how they did it they sent a speech therapist and a behavior specialist and on group leader to my house they played with my son and evaluated him and they asked me a lot of questions about him. Then they computed the numbers to see where he stood and he was a little speech delayed. NOw the speech therapist comes to my house once a week. I can already see a difference in the two weeks he has been in the program.

They also suggested I take him for a hearing test - just to rule that out and he passed that

That's exactly what happened with us and our son. We did it all through our county's Infants and Children program. After he turned 3, he went to speech once a week at our elementary school. He just turned 6 and now he doesn't shut up!

 

[ang]

I went the private route, also. According to the therapist, who also did classes for the county, my son did not meet (or barely met) the county guidelines for therapy, and probably would not have been treated, although anyone other than immediate family could not understand what he was saying.

His evaluatiion also included a hearing test and examination by a ENT doctor.

The same here....My DS did not talk at the age of 3 1/2, but he knew his A<B<C, numbers, colors, shapes (by pointing at them), and can use scissors...so he did not qualified.
My insurance paid for the first 6 months at the hospital, $120 for a 1/2 hour. After our 6 months we switch to another therapiest which they charged $120 for 4 hours. He only did speech therapy for a year.

 

[saucymb]

We are going through this exact same thing with our son Jonah. He will be 2 on March 30, and only says 2 words (mama and dada). He does make car and train sounds on cue and when playing, and makes 5 or 6 animal sounds.

At his 15 month checkup, his Pediatrician expressed concern and referred us to an Audiologist. Since my husband has moderate hearing loss and several members of his family have moderate to severe hearing loss, she was concerned that he was not hearing properly. After he failed the initial hearing screening at our home when the speech therapist, psychologist, and RN came out to evaluate him, he went in for the in-depth hearing screening. They only got about 80% through before he just ran out of patience and refused to cooperate any longer, but they said he passed.

After another evaluation, it was recommended that we wait a couple of months. He was on track or ahead in all aspects except his speech! His receptive skills are fine, he knows what we are saying, he just won't respond! He "drones" a lot, not making consonant sounds, not putting his lips together and we have no idea what he is trying to say.

So he just had his first round of speech therapy this past week. They come out to our house for that. They've given me some "homework" to do with him, though it's nothing I haven't been doing all along.

I guess now we give it more time and see if starts talking.