At his last IFSP meeting at the end of June (check out more details here) with his therapists and service coordinator the topic of a speech evaluation was brought up. Jax's OT was concerned with this speech and thought an evaluation would be appropriate. At 12 months, he didn't have any words, didn't wave bye-bye and has a gag reflex and some sensory issues related to eating. His PT didn't necessarily agree that speech therapist would be the way to go, rather a special ed therapist would be more beneficial at this time. We pushed for the speech evaluation as his OT has known him longer. I know what some of you are thinking. He's only one; he's not supposed to "talk". Or, all kids develop at different rates. But here's the thing, children with Spina Bifida and/or hydrocephalus are at a higher risk for being developmentally delayed in areas such as speech. So, we're going to get him all the help he needs and qualifies for.
The next thing I bet you're wondering....how do they evaluate a one-year-old? Through observation of Jackson during the evaluation and parental interviews, that's how. A speech therapist (ST) came out to the house at the end of July to evaluate Jackson. Both Jason and myself were there along with my parents and my mother-in-law. We like to include them in these types of things as much as possible because they are all very much involved in his life as well and also might be able to provide insight.
The speech therapist did administer a standardized test called the Preschool Language Scale - 4th Edition (PLS-4). This test evaluates the ability to understand spoken language (receptive language) and the ability to use language in order to communicate with other (expressive language). The ST asked a series of questions for us and our parents to answer and also tried to get Jackson to interact with her. The standard score, or "normal range", is between 85 and 115. For receptive language Jackson scored 71 and for expressive language he scored 75. Overall, his score was a 70.
So, what does that really mean? At the time of the evaluation, Jackson was aged at 6-8 months when it comes to speech. He did not achieve any credit for any of the test items in the 12-17 month level for either the receptive language or expressive language.
Here are some of the things he does:
- Makes eye contact when his name is spoken
- Turns head to locate source of sounds
- Mouths objects
- Only plays with one toy at a time
- Lifts arms in response to "Up"
- Responds to "No-no" by laughing
- Demonstrates protest by grunting, varying tone of crying, facial gestures
- Communicates non-verbally by pushing items away when not wanted
- Vocalizes using two different consonant sounds "d" and "b"
- He will combine and say "Da-da" but does not look at Dad, therefore not demonstrating and understanding of the word.
- Follow simple commands or routines
- Using objects appropriately in play
- Identifying objects
- Participation in play routine for 1+ minutes
- Vocabulary of at least one word
Recap on Jackson's services at this point: Physical Therapy twice a week, Occupational Therapy once a week and Special Ed Instruction Therapy twice a week. What a popular guy!
I can already say that the SEIT is helping. He's starting to make more sounds and seems to understand more words. No actual words yet from him, but we can tell by his grunts/noises when he is trying to say things like, "Go", "Stop", "More", "Drink", etc. He's getting there. He has learned one sign so far, "Go" and is currently working on learning "Ball". Everyone keeps telling me, "Just wait, one day he'll start talking and he won't stop!". Well, I can't wait for that day! Although someone may need to remind me when that time comes how I excited I was going to be for it. LOL.
Peace out.
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