Hi Venessa,

I am an SLP but do not work in the area of child speech. I can provide some basic info, and maybe others with more experience specific to this area can clarify (or correct me) as needed.

What an SLP is interested in will depend on the context. Why is the assessment being done? Is this a screening, does a parent have a particular concern, something else? Are there any other developmental concerns besides speech? SLPs' scope of practice is quite broad and includes language, cognition, and swallowing as well as speech, so the nature of the assessment really depends on the concerns raised and how the child presents. There is, of course, a big difference between a 3-year-old child who can't produce an "r" sound and a child who is not saying anything.

Assuming the concern *seems* limited to speech -- e.g., a lisp, or perhaps a child with low intelligibility for his/her age -- an SLP would be interested in the following:

- assessing which speech sounds a child can articulate (perhaps using the Goldman Fristoe Test of Articulation, GFTA-2)

- checking the structure and function of the oromotor mechanism (e.g., checking whether the child has a submucosal cleft palate)

- performing a hearing screen or referring to Audiology for a hearing eval

- gathering a functional speech language sample by engaging the child in play or conversation for several minutes

- inquiring about the home, school, and other environments where the child spends a lot of time (e.g., is English the child's primary language?)

If the child is not producing a particular speech sound or sounds, we wonder whether this is solely a speech problem (i.e., the child knows what sound he wants to produce but is having difficulty producing it) or is in fact an issue of phonology (i.e., language). See here for some basics about this distinction: http://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/speechsounddisorders/

A more thorough evaluation would include assessing receptive vocabulary (e.g., Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, PPVT), expressive vocabulary (e.g., Expressive Vocabulary Test, EVT), and evaluation of a broader range of language skills (e.g., CELF Preschool). The SLP might also ask a parent/caregiver to complete a checklist documenting which words a child produces and/or understands in functional contexts. If there are concerns about cognition or more global development, an SLP would want to be mindful of whether the child is exhibiting appropriate social/pragmatic skills, and might evaluate play.

Finally, since communication is so dependent on culture and context, an SLP wants to be mindful of whether the child has had exposure to a rich language environment. If you want more info about some of these concerns, try googling "dynamic assessment" and "dynamic assessment asha."

Hope this helps.

Lauryn

Hi there,

I think I need a bit more detail. Do you mean speech or language or both?

Lauryn's reply is an excellent summary. If you want more specific detail about assessing speech sound disorders then let me know and I can provide some more information

Hello,

I mean to say an assessment of the child's communication development, so I suppose that would comprise of both speech and language?

Thank you

Thank you Lauryn , your answer was very helpful

Communication development is broad. It will be important to determine where the concerns are first. My guess that a through language evaluation and possibly a social cognitive evaluation (if there are pragmatic language issues) might be recommended.