What a Comprehensive Speech-Language Evaluation Really Includes
A comprehensive evaluation is not one test, one score, or one hour. It is a carefully selected combination of formal and informal measures, like standardized testing, observations, interviews, communication samples, and oral mechanism examinations, considered together with the case history and brought together through professional interpretation to understand the whole child and determine responsible next steps.
Every evaluation is completed in a single appointment. We will never ask you to schedule additional follow-up evaluation time: your intake paperwork is reviewed in advance, so follow-up questions from the case history are ready before we meet, and the session is planned so everything your child needs, even specialized testing, fits inside one visit. This page explains how that planning works, what happens at each stage, and what you are left holding at the end.
Don’t waitChildren can often be evaluated earlier than parents realize: language measures are available from 8 months and speech measures from 18 months. You do not have to wait for a small concern to become larger before getting answers.
On this page
An evaluation should provide an explanation, not just a score.
A comprehensive speech-language evaluation is a planned look at how your child communicates, built from several kinds of information and interpreted together. It is not one test or one score. Because every child is different, every evaluation looks a little different: your child’s age, communication needs, and the reason for the visit decide which methods we use.
What every evaluation is built to answer
Whatever methods we choose, the goal is the same: understand your child’s strengths, identify where they may need support, and give you clear recommendations for what comes next. Every evaluation is designed to answer four questions.
What is your child already doing successfully?
Where is communication, participation, or learning becoming difficult?
What might be making those things harder for your child?
What support, referral, monitoring, or follow-up, if any, would be appropriate?
What goes into it
To answer those questions, we draw on up to seven sources of information and read them together as one picture. No single source decides the outcome.
When sources agree, and when they don’tWhen several valid, relevant sources point the same way, we can be more confident in what they show. When they disagree, that difference is useful information, not a problem. We look at what might explain it: the setting, the language used, tiredness, how regulated your child was that day, how demanding the task was, how much cueing or help was given, whether the test was a good fit for your child, or the limits of the test itself.
Where standardized tests fit
Standardized tests (the “formal measures” in the diagram) are one source among several. They can be helpful for comparing certain skills with same-age peers, and they give families, schools, physicians, and other providers a shared reference point. But they are not always needed or the best fit for every child, and no single test or score can tell the whole story.
How we decide what your child’s evaluation includes
Before any material is chosen, your concern becomes a set of specific clinical questions, and those questions determine the methods. A child who is hard to understand needs a different assessment than a child who stutters, uses AAC, struggles to follow directions, or has a hard time at meals. Some children need a close look at one area. Others need a broader picture across several.
The complete evaluation process
Once we know what the evaluation needs to answer, the work happens in three parts: preparation before the appointment, the time with your child, and the analysis that follows. Families usually only see the middle piece. The process is the same wherever we meet, whether we come to your home or your child comes to us.
Before the appointment
The evaluation begins before we meet.
Whenever paperwork reaches us ahead of the visit, we read it before the evaluation begins. Reviewing history and records in advance means the appointment can be spent watching your child communicate rather than collecting background we could have gathered beforehand.
What to send usHome videos are one of the best resources you can share: a short clip on your phone shows us how your child communicates or eats in real daily routines, in a way no clinic visit can. Send whatever you have, even if it is old or a rough take, along with any previous evaluations or progress notes.
Please share records or videos only through the secure method we provide, rather than by regular email.
What your intake paperwork tells us
- Developmental and birth history
- Medical history, diagnoses, and medications
- Hearing and vision history
- Speech, language, and communication development so far
- Previous or current therapies and services
- School or childcare information
- Languages and dialects used at home
- How your child communicates now: speech, gestures, signs, pictures, or a device
- Daily routines and the places where concerns are most noticeable
- Your priorities as a family
- Your child’s own concerns and goals, when they are old enough to share them
Records worth sharing, if you have them
- Previous speech-language or related evaluations
- IEPs or 504 Plans
- Audiology (hearing) reports
- Medical or developmental reports
- AAC or communication device evaluations and documentation
- Therapy progress reports
- Observations from therapists, teachers, or other providers
During the appointment
Comfortable for the child. Clinically intentional.
Depending on your child’s age and the area of concern, the evaluation may involve play, conversation, movement, storytelling, structured testing, or AAC use.
What this may look like for your child
- Starting with a preferred or familiar activity
- Taking time to warm up before a more difficult direct assessment
- Taking breaks or moving around the room
- Communicating through speech, gestures, signs, vocalization, writing, or AAC
- Showing skills through play and everyday interactions
- Completing structured tasks when appropriate
- Having a caregiver nearby when helpful
What we are doing while that happens
- Observing without prompting, so we can see what your child does independently
- Using formal assessments when appropriate, to take a closer look at specific areas of communication
- Using dynamic assessment: trying different levels of support and watching how your child responds, which shows us what kind of help works, how much they need, and whether skills begin to improve with prompting or teaching
“Child-friendly does not mean less thorough.”
A relaxed interaction may provide a more accurate communication sample. Structured tasks may then be added to examine particular skills, compare performance, test different supports, and clarify the picture. A longer session is not automatically a better one: we take the time your child’s questions require, and if fatigue shows up, we treat it as information. Children tire in real routines too, so how their communication holds up when they are running low is part of what we want to see. Much of the work happens afterward, in scoring, analysis, and interpretation.
After the appointment
The clinical work continues after the session ends.
Once the visit is over, we score the measures, review the observations and communication samples, and look for patterns across speech sound production, understanding and using language, social communication, fluency, voice, and the way your child communicates most effectively. Then everything is brought together into one picture and a set of recommendations.
What happens between the visit and your results
- Scoring the tests and measures your child completed
- Analyzing communication samples
- Comparing findings with what is expected for your child’s age
- Looking at how communication is affecting everyday life
- Weighing everything together: results, observations, history, relevant risk factors, records, and your input
- Considering possible explanations and what the findings mean
- Deciding on recommendations and any referrals
- Recommending therapy when appropriate, with general areas of need to guide an individualized plan
- Writing the report and preparing for your results consultation
The core components of a comprehensive evaluation
These are the building blocks: the seven sources of information from the diagram above, followed by what we do with them once we have them. Not every evaluation uses all of them, and the ones we choose follow from the clinical question rather than a standard checklist.
Formal assessment means published, structured tests, most often standardized tests that compare your child with other children the same age. Informal assessment means gathering information without those fixed rules and comparison scores: watching real skills in real activities, which shows how your child actually communicates day to day. It provides equally important clinical information, and it includes functional assessment, looking at how skills hold up in everyday contexts. Communication samples, dynamic assessment, and the oral mechanism examination are the main informal measures we use.
The seven sources of information
01History and records
We review relevant developmental, medical, educational, communication, and treatment history. Previous reports may provide important context, help us avoid repeating unnecessary testing, and allow us to measure change over time: whether skills are growing quickly, growing slowly, holding steady, or have been lost.
Hearing and vision history
Hearing plays a direct role in how speech and language develop, and vision affects how a child accesses pictures, books, gestures, AAC, and many evaluation activities. Recent hearing and vision screenings help rule out these factors as contributors to communication concerns.
DisclaimerSocial House Therapy does not provide hearing or vision screenings or evaluations.
02Caregiver and child interview
We discuss strengths, concerns, daily routines, communication environments, previous supports, and the questions your family wants answered. Older children should take part in this conversation whenever possible.
03Clinical observation
Clinical observation happens throughout the evaluation, not just at one point. We watch how your child communicates, interacts, plays, problem-solves, regulates, participates, and moves through their environment, and how they respond to different people, activities, and levels of support. We also notice what happens when a message is misunderstood, and how your child and their communication partner work together to repair it. These observations help us understand how skills show up in real moments, beyond individual test items.
04Formal assessment (standardized tests)
Formal assessment means using published, structured tests as part of the evaluation. The most common kind is a standardized test: a set of activities given the same way to every child, so we can compare how your child did with other children the same age. It helps answer questions like “is this typical for a three-year-old?” with data instead of impressions, and it produces the scores you see in the report. We use these tests when they help answer the questions we have about your child.
How scores are handled
- Given the standard way: the score is always reported. If something may have affected it, such as attention, language background, or how your child responds, the report explains those factors and leans on the other information gathered alongside it.
- Not a fair fit: we may still borrow pieces of the test, asking certain questions without following the standardized directions, to gather useful information. A test given that way cannot produce a valid score, so no score is reported, and the report explains what was done instead and why.
An evaluation without a standard score is not less comprehensive; it means the score would not have given a fair or meaningful picture of your child’s abilities.
05Communication samples
A communication sample is an informal measure included in every evaluation we complete, and a foundational one. It lets us see how your child communicates beyond individual test questions, in situations that look much more like everyday life. Samples may be gathered through conversation, play, storytelling, reading, structured activities, AAC use, or recordings from everyday environments. What we analyze depends on your child’s communication needs and the questions we are trying to answer. For example:
- Speech: how understandable your child is in connected speech, which sounds are difficult, whether error patterns are consistent, and how speech changes as words and sentences become more complex.
- Fluency: the types and frequency of stuttering, tension or struggle, avoidance or word-switching, and signs it is costing your child confidence, such as holding back or looking away when stuck.
- Language: vocabulary, grammar, sentence length and complexity, storytelling, organization of ideas, and how clearly your child expresses a message. We can also observe how they understand questions, directions, and conversation in context.
- Social communication: how your child initiates and responds, takes turns, maintains or shifts topics, interprets and uses verbal and nonverbal information, and repairs communication when something is misunderstood.
Because these samples reflect communication in context, they can reveal strengths, patterns, and challenges that may not appear during standardized testing, and they provide a meaningful baseline for measuring progress over time.
06Dynamic assessment
Dynamic assessment is an informal measure that looks at how a child responds to teaching and support. Rather than measuring only what your child can do independently, we may provide models, cues, or practice to see how they learn and what helps them be successful. This helps us tell the difference between a skill your child simply has not learned yet and a skill that stays difficult even with support, which matters for both diagnosis and planning therapy that actually helps.
07Oral mechanism examination
Oral structure and function are considered as a part of every evaluation, through an informal examination. We look at the mouth and face for structural or movement-related factors that may affect speech or breathing. The depth of the examination depends on your child’s needs and the reason for evaluation.
What we do with all of it
Identifying that a child is having difficulty is only the beginning. Three more steps turn the findings into an answer you can act on.
Functional impact
We consider how communication skills affect daily participation, including being understood, expressing needs and ideas, following directions, learning, building relationships, completing routines, and advocating for oneself.
Clinical interpretation and differential diagnosis
We consider all available information together to understand what might be contributing to your child’s communication concerns: the communication profile, the functional impact, and possible contributing factors. We ask whether the findings reflect expected developmental or community variation, a language or dialect difference, a communication disorder, another influence, or a combination. These are not always either/or questions, and more than one area may need consideration at once. Working through them helps us distinguish between concerns that may look similar, recognize when more than one factor is involved, and determine appropriate recommendations or referrals.
Not every evaluation will result in a definitive diagnosis. When findings remain unclear, the report should explain what is known, what remains uncertain, and what additional information may be helpful.
Referrals and collaboration
When appropriate, recommendations may include audiology, ENT, developmental pediatrics, occupational therapy, physical therapy, psychology, nutrition, gastroenterology, dentistry, school-based evaluation, or another specialist.
Communication must be understood within the child’s language, culture, and community.
A responsible evaluation considers every language and dialect a child uses, how much exposure they have had to each, and the cultural expectations that shape communication. Social House Therapy does not have a bilingual clinician at this time, so standardized testing is completed in English, and the report states which language testing was completed in and what that means for how the results should be read.
Your child’s other languages are still part of the evaluation: we gather information about them through caregiver interview, records, and especially communication samples, which carry more weight than test scores for multilingual children. When answering the clinical question requires direct assessment in another language, we refer you to a clinician who can provide it and discuss interpreter support when appropriate. The goal is to distinguish a language or dialect difference from a true communication disorder, without treating multilingual development as a deficit.
“Speaking more than one language does not cause a language disorder.”
Test scores compare your child to a specific group of children, tested in one language. When that group does not reflect your child’s language experience, a standard score may not be a fair comparison to report, and communication samples, caregiver interview, dynamic assessment, and observation carry the weight instead.
What we assess based on the area of concern
The sections above describe the toolkit. This is how it is applied to a specific concern: the methods depend on the area and the questions the evaluation needs to answer. Open any area to see what it is, why it matters, and what we may look at. If you are not sure which area fits your child, start with the one closest to what you are noticing.
01Early Communication and Late Talking
For young children, communication includes much more than spoken vocabulary. An evaluation looks at how your child understands language, connects with others, plays, and communicates using sounds, gestures, words, signs, AAC, and other forms of communication.
Why it mattersChildren can use few spoken words for many different reasons. We look at the whole communication profile to understand what your child already does well, where development may be more difficult, and whether the pattern points primarily to language, speech production, hearing, another developmental factor, or a combination. This helps us determine whether support is needed and where it should begin.
What we may look at
- Understanding words, questions, and directions
- Spoken words
- Gestures
- Signs
- AAC or other communication supports
- Vocabulary
- Word combinations
- Early grammar
- Reasons for communicating, such as requesting, protesting, sharing, or getting attention
- Sharing attention with another person
- Imitation
- Play development
- Speech sound development
- Communication during familiar routines
- Hearing history when relevant
02Speech Sound Disorders
A speech sound evaluation looks at more than which sounds a child says correctly or incorrectly: it asks why the errors are happening, including motor planning differences like childhood apraxia of speech, covered separately below.
Why it mattersTwo children may sound like they are making the same speech errors for very different reasons: how the tongue is positioned, how the brain organizes the sound patterns of the language, how it plans and sequences the movements for speech, the strength and coordination of the muscles involved, or a combination. Each type of speech sound disorder is treated differently, so identifying which one is behind your child’s errors is what makes therapy effective. That is our job, and it is why differential diagnosis matters so much.
What we may look at
- Speech sounds in single words
- Speech sounds in spontaneous conversation
- How easily your child is understood
- Patterns in how sounds are changed or simplified
- Consistency of errors
- Whether sounds become easier with a model or cue
- How sounds are sequenced in longer or more complex words
- Awareness of sounds in words, when age-appropriate
- Strength, coordination, and range of motion of the mouth and jaw
- Effects on participation, learning, or confidence
03Childhood Apraxia and Motor Speech
Speaking requires the brain to plan and sequence very precise movements of the lips, tongue, and jaw. In childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) and other motor speech disorders, the difficulty is not knowing what to say or which sounds to use; it is getting those movement plans to happen reliably. Identifying it requires assessment beyond a traditional articulation test.
Why it mattersMotor speech difficulties can look similar to other speech sound disorders. We look at the full speech pattern, including how consistent errors are, how speech movements are coordinated, and how your child responds to different types of support. For very young children or children with limited speech, the clearest answer may develop over time rather than from one appointment.
What we may look at
- Whether the same word comes out differently across attempts
- Vowel accuracy
- How smoothly sounds and syllables move together
- Longer or multisyllabic words
- Speech rate, rhythm, and stress
- How speech changes with different cues or supports
See how motor speech assessment differs from articulation testing.
04Language
Language has two sides. Receptive language is how your child understands: words, questions, directions, stories, and conversation. Expressive language is how your child shares their own thoughts: choosing words, building sentences, and organizing ideas so others can follow them. A child can have challenges with one or the other, or a mix of both, so an evaluation looks at each. (The third part of language, using it socially, is covered under Social Communication below.)
We assess these skills through observation and communication samples alongside formal testing when appropriate, comparing the areas of strength and need each one reveals.
Why it mattersA child can pass a vocabulary test and still lose the thread of a story, a set of directions, or a classroom discussion. Separating what your child understands from what they can organize and express tells us where to start, because the two need very different kinds of support.
Understanding (receptive language)
- Understanding words, questions, and directions
- Understanding concepts and relationships between words
- Making inferences
- Understanding nonliteral or more complex language
Expressing (expressive language)
- Grammar and sentence development
- Word retrieval
- Organizing thoughts and expressing ideas clearly
- Sequencing events and telling stories in a logical order
Across both
- Vocabulary and word meanings
- Verbal and nonverbal communication, including gestures, signs, and AAC
- Language used for reading, writing, and learning, when age-appropriate
05Social Communication
Social communication is how we use communication to connect, participate, and navigate interactions with other people. An evaluation looks at how your child participates in conversations, communicates across different people and situations, notices and responds to social information, and handles moments when communication breaks down. Because these skills show up in real interaction rather than on a table test, we assess them primarily through observation and communication samples, along with caregiver report, adding formal measures when they help answer the question.
Why it mattersThere is no single correct way to communicate, so we are not measuring your child against a script. We are looking for where interactions break down, what already helps them go well, and which supports would make them feel less effortful.
What we may look at
- Starting and maintaining interactions
- Conversation and topic management
- Repairing misunderstandings
- Understanding implied meaning
- Reading tone and body language
- Understanding sarcasm and figurative language
- Communication across people and settings
- Self-advocacy and communication preferences
- Environmental supports and barriers
06Stuttering and Fluency
Fluency is about more than how speech sounds to a listener. A fluency evaluation focuses on the speaker’s experience: how speaking feels, how stuttering affects participation, confidence, and communication choices, and which situations make speaking easier or harder. We also look at the communication environment to understand what helps the speaker feel supported, what may increase pressure, and how communication partners can make speaking feel more comfortable.
Why it mattersThe goal is not simply to count stutters. We want to understand how stuttering affects the speaker’s daily life and what support may help them communicate more freely and confidently.
What we may look at
- Types and frequency of stuttering
- Physical tension or struggle
- Thoughts and feelings about speaking
- Escape or avoidant behaviors
- Impact on participation and confidence
- Speaking across different situations
- Speech rate and rhythm
- Communication partner responses
- Family history
- Self-advocacy
07Cognitive-Communication and Executive Function
Cognitive-communication refers to the thinking skills that support understanding, organizing, remembering, and sharing information. Executive-function skills help a child plan, get started, stay with a task, monitor their progress, and adjust when something is not working.
An evaluation examines how these skills affect communication, learning, relationships, and participation in everyday routines. We focus specifically on the connection between thinking and communication. When concerns extend beyond communication, such as broader difficulties with attention, learning, behavior, memory, or cognition, we may recommend evaluation by another appropriate professional.
Why it mattersA child may know what they want to say but lose track of the information, have difficulty organizing their message, need support getting started, or become overwhelmed by multiple steps. Understanding where the breakdown occurs helps us identify practical strategies and supports that make communication, learning, and daily routines more manageable.
What we may look at
- Sustaining and shifting attention
- Working memory
- Processing and responding to information
- Organizing and expressing thoughts
- Planning and sequencing
- Starting and completing tasks
- Following multistep directions
- Problem-solving and flexible thinking
- Monitoring and adjusting communication
- Using strategies and supports across settings
Recognize your child in one of these?
You do not need to be certain, and you do not need to land on the right category. Working out which evaluation your child needs is our job, not yours. Share what you are noticing, in one area or several, and we will take it from there.
A report you can understand and use
Everything gathered during the evaluation comes together in one written document. It is written in language families can understand, and it also stands as complete clinical documentation for your child’s doctors, school, and other providers. Plain-language explanation sits next to the scores rather than replacing them.
What the report covers, in the order you will read it
Speech-Language Evaluation Report
Prepared by Madison Jeffery, MS, CCC-SLP, Social House Therapy
Some sections appear only when they apply. Standard scores are reported when a test was given the standard way, test limitations are explained when they affected a result, and a diagnosis is stated only when the findings support one. If therapy is recommended, the report explains why and names the general areas that may benefit from support. Specific goals, strategies, and the therapy plan are developed with you when services begin.
When you get it, and how
We tell you the expected report-completion timeframe before the evaluation is scheduled. It can take longer when we are waiting on outside records, an interpreter, or input from school or another setting, and we will tell you if that is the case. The report reaches you before we meet, so you can read it first. The results consultation is included in the evaluation fee, not billed separately.
“No family should receive a report by email and be left to work out what it means.”
Therapy is not the automatic answer.
Depending on the findings, the recommendation may be any of the following, and we are as direct about the last one as the first.
- Therapy
- Monitoring, with a plan for when to check again
- Reevaluation after a set period
- Another professional or assessment
- Additional supports at home or school
- No treatment at all
Documentation that can support the next conversation
An evaluation is most useful when it does not sit in a drawer. The report can go to the people already supporting your child, so that everyone is working from the same information instead of separate impressions.
Your permission firstNothing is shared with anyone until you have given written permission, and you choose who receives it.
Who families commonly share it with
Your evaluation report
Medical and therapy providers
School and childcare
Funding and equipment
What the report can do, and what it cannot
The report gives you clinical documentation and specific recommendations to bring to those conversations. What each organization does with it is their decision. Schools, medical providers, insurers, funding sources, and government programs each apply their own criteria, so a private evaluation cannot guarantee any of the outcomes on the right.
Using the report at school
Many families bring their child’s evaluation report to an IEP or 504 meeting. Here is what to expect.
- When an outside evaluation meets applicable requirements, the school must consider the information it provides (34 CFR 300.502(c)).
- The school does not have to adopt every conclusion or recommendation. The school team makes its own decisions about eligibility, services, and placement.
- School eligibility is based on how a disability affects a child academically or socially and emotionally in the school setting. A delay, disorder, or diagnosis does not by itself mean a child needs school services.
- A private evaluation can still give the team useful information about your child’s strengths, needs, and recommended supports.
This is general educational information, not legal advice.
An evaluation with nothing attached to it
The process above is what a thorough evaluation should look like anywhere. These are the things that are specific to how we work.
The clinician who evaluates your child also scores the testing, writes the report, and sits down with you to review the findings. Nothing is handed off, and nothing is lost between people.
An evaluation is a complete service on its own. If the findings point to therapy, we say so and explain why. If they point to monitoring, a referral, or nothing at all, we say that just as plainly. Whatever comes next is your decision.
When an AAC device or other equipment is recommended, we have no financial relationship with the vendor. The recommendation is based on what fits your child, and the funding request goes through the usual channels, not through us.
Everything is completed in a single appointment, and the fee includes the written report and the results consultation. There is no separate charge to have the findings explained.
Evaluations happen in the home in Tempe, Scottsdale, and nearby areas, on site at ABA and childcare centers with facility approval, or by telehealth statewide across Arizona. We help you choose the setting that will give the truest picture of your child before anything is scheduled.
We do not provide hearing or vision screenings or diagnoses that belong to other professions, and the report says so. When your child needs something outside our scope, you get a specific referral rather than a vague suggestion.
A note from Madison
An evaluation should never feel like your child is being reduced to a score. My goal is to understand how your child communicates, what supports bring out their strongest skills, and what would make daily life easier or more connected. I want families to leave with answers they understand and a clear picture of what could come next, and to feel free to take that picture wherever they choose. If the honest answer is that your child does not need therapy, that is the answer you will get.
Madison Jeffery
MS, CCC-SLP. More about Madison
Questions families often ask about evaluations
Before the evaluation
During the evaluation
After the evaluation
Therapy may not be recommended when the evaluation as a whole shows your child’s communication skills are developing within the expected range. Standard scores are one piece of that picture, not the whole of it. Your concerns, our observations, communication samples, and how your child gets by day to day all count, so a score in the typical range does not close the question if the rest of the evidence, including what you are seeing at home, points to a real difficulty.
Our goal is never to keep a child in therapy. It is to give them the skills they need to communicate with confidence and then step back, so weekly sessions are not taking time out of your family’s life when they are not adding something to it. When communication is genuinely hard and getting in the way of daily life, that is when we recommend therapy. When it is not, we explain why, tell you what to watch for, and leave the door open if concerns grow.
A standardized score is one part of an evaluation. Recommendations also weigh your concerns, clinical observations, functional communication, and developmental history, so a borderline or mild score does not automatically mean therapy is unnecessary or that monitoring is the only option.
Because we are private pay, care is not decided by an insurance company’s score cutoff: families whose child falls in that range can choose to begin services. We talk through the likely benefits, priorities, and options with you so you can make an informed decision.
More general questions are answered on our full FAQ page.
Professional guidance behind this page
The practices described here draw on current guidance from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), federal special-education regulations, and peer-reviewed research.
Show all 16 referencesHide references
- Spoken Language DisordersAmerican Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Practice Portal.Assessment methods for spoken language, including the case for combining formal and informal measures.www.asha.org/practice-portal/clinical-topics/spoken-language-disorders/
- Assessment Tools, Techniques, and Data SourcesAmerican Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Practice Portal.The range of data sources a comprehensive evaluation draws on.www.asha.org/practice-portal/resources/assessment-tools-techniques-and-data-sources/
- Eligibility criteria for language impairment: is the low end of normal always appropriate?Spaulding, T. J., Plante, E., & Farinella, K. A. (2006). Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 37(1), 61–72.Why low standardized-test scores alone cannot identify language impairment.doi.org/10.1044/0161-1461%282006/007%29
- Language sampling: does the length of the transcript matter?Heilmann, J., Nockerts, A., & Miller, J. F. (2010). Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 41(4), 393–404.Language sample analysis as a stable measure of children’s oral language.doi.org/10.1044/0161-1461%282009/09-0023%29
- Multilingual Service Delivery in Audiology and Speech-Language PathologyAmerican Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Practice Portal.Assessing children who use more than one language or dialect, and separating difference from disorder.www.asha.org/practice-portal/professional-issues/multilingual-service-delivery/
- The use of dynamic assessment for the diagnosis of language disorders in bilingual children: a meta-analysisOrellana, C. I., Wada, R., & Gillam, R. B. (2019). American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 28(3), 1298–1317.Dynamic assessment as a valid way to identify language disorder in bilingual children.doi.org/10.1044/2019_AJSLP-18-0202
- Childhood Hearing ScreeningAmerican Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Practice Portal.Why hearing status is reviewed and when a referral to audiology is recommended.www.asha.org/practice-portal/professional-issues/childhood-hearing-screening/
- Childhood Apraxia of SpeechAmerican Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Practice Portal.Motor speech assessment and how it differs from articulation testing.www.asha.org/practice-portal/clinical-topics/childhood-apraxia-of-speech/
- Augmentative and Alternative CommunicationAmerican Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Practice Portal.Evaluating children who use AAC, and the scope of a dedicated AAC evaluation.www.asha.org/practice-portal/professional-issues/augmentative-and-alternative-communication/
- Fluency DisordersAmerican Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Practice Portal.Distinguishing typical disfluency from stuttering.www.asha.org/practice-portal/clinical-topics/fluency-disorders/
- Social Communication DisorderAmerican Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Practice Portal.Social communication assessment and its relationship to autism.www.asha.org/practice-portal/clinical-topics/social-communication-disorder/
- Scope of Practice in Speech-Language PathologyAmerican Speech-Language-Hearing Association (2016).Cognitive aspects of communication, including attention, memory, sequencing, problem solving, and executive functioning, as part of the speech-language pathologist’s scope.www.asha.org/policy/sp2016-00343/
- 34 CFR §300.304: Evaluation proceduresIndividuals with Disabilities Education Act regulations, U.S. Department of Education.The requirement to use multiple measures rather than a single test.sites.ed.gov/idea/regs/b/d/300.304
- 34 CFR §300.502: Independent educational evaluationIndividuals with Disabilities Education Act regulations, U.S. Department of Education.How a school must treat an outside evaluation, as described in Using the Results.sites.ed.gov/idea/regs/b/e/300.502
A clearer plan begins with understanding the whole picture.
A comprehensive evaluation should help your family understand what is happening, why it matters, and what to do next. Whether the recommendation is therapy, monitoring, another referral, or reassurance, you should leave with information you can understand and use.
Ready when you are.
Send us a note with what you are noticing at home. We will agree on the right starting point together, whether that is an evaluation, a wait-and-see plan, or a referral somewhere else.
There is no obligation to begin therapy after an evaluation.
About this page. This page provides general educational information about speech-language evaluations and does not replace an individualized evaluation. What is included in your child’s evaluation depends on their history, concerns, and the clinical questions we are trying to answer.
Scope. Social House Therapy provides evaluations within the training and expertise of the evaluating clinician. If another type of assessment or specialist would better answer the question, we will explain why and recommend an appropriate next step.
Clinical review. This page was developed using current professional guidance, including resources from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and is reviewed periodically for accuracy.