Screenings and Evaluations

Screenings

A speech and language screening is a preliminary step used to quickly assess a child’s communication skills to determine if they are developing appropriately for their age. Screenings are brief, often lasting between 10 to 20 minutes, and are usually conducted by a speech-language pathologist (SLP) in various settings like schools, daycare centers, ABA therapy centers, or the Azalea Therapy Group office in Spring TX. The goal of screening is to identify children who may be at risk for speech, language, or communication disorders.

The results of a screener are not meant to provide a diagnosis but rather to indicate whether further evaluation is needed.

Bilingual screening also available (English/Spanish)

Evaluation

The next step is a comprehensive speech and language evaluation. It is an in-depth assessment that looks more closely at the child's communication skills across several areas. A comprehensive evaluation is a combination of standardized testing, observations, and sometimes informal measures to gather a full picture of the child’s abilities.

Some of these may include:

Articulation: To assess how well the child produces speech sounds.
Receptive language: Measure the child’s understanding of language, such as their ability to follow directions or comprehend stories.
Expressive language: Evaluate the child’s ability to use words and sentences to communicate thoughts and ideas.
Pragmatic language: Assess how the child uses language in social situations.
Voice and fluency: Evaluate the quality of the child’s voice and fluency of speech.

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LANGUAGE

Receptive Language refers to a child's ability to understand what is said to them and Expressive Language refers to how a child uses language to communicate thoughts, ideas, and needs. Expressive language is using words, grammar, and sentence structure to communicate. Some signs and symptoms that may indicate a concern include: Difficulty following one-step or multi-step directions. Not answering simple yes/no or "wh" questions Understanding single word or short sentences but not longer age-appropriate sentences. Have difficulty naming items and objects. Not link together words or uses sentences that are shorter than others of the same age. Use ‘jargon’ (made up words) in speech. Produces sentences that are ‘muddled ’. To learn more call Azalea Therapy Group today!

articulation

Articulation or pronunciation refers to the way sounds are produced by the mouth. Children can have a mild speech delay that impacts their ability to say one or two sounds, or a more severe delay or disorder that effects how many children pronounce sounds. All children have sound errors in their speech as they are developing. However, it is expected that sounds will be mastered by a certain age. Some signs and symptoms that may indicate a concern include: Speech is unclear to others Child frequently repeats themselves People have a hard time understanding them on the phone Child becomes frustrated with speaking because they are frequently not understood You are noticing none of their peers have the same sound errors Contact Azalea Therapy Group today!

FLUENCY

Fluency refers to the continuity, smoothness, rate, and effort in speech production. A disorder in this area presents as an interruption in the flow of speaking characterized by atypical rate, rhythm, and disfluencies (e.g., repetitions of sounds, syllables, words, and phrases; sound prolongations; and blocks), which may also be accompanied by excessive tension, speaking avoidance, struggle behaviors, and secondary mannerisms. Some signs and symptoms that may indicate a concern include: Repetitions of sounds, syllables, and monosyllabic words Blocks Prolongations of consonants Negative reactions to speaking Avoidance behaviors Atypical pauses within sentences that are not expected syntactically Deletion and/or collapsing of syllables Find out more at Azalea Therapy Group today!

pRAGMATICS

Pragmatic refers to the social use of language in everyday interactions. It encompasses a wide range of skills, including turn-taking, understanding nonverbal cues, maintaining appropriate personal space, using appropriate greetings, body language, tone of voice, conversational skills, social rules, and problem-solving skills. Some signs and symptoms that may indicate a concern include: Use of eye contact Turn-taking skills Understanding and using nonverbal cues Maintaining appropriate personal space Understanding and using appropriate greetings Understanding and using appropriate body language Understanding and using appropriate conversational skills Find out more at Azalea Therapy Group in The Woodlands today!