Speech Eval

We took Tillman for a Speech Eval last month because his speech was just not progressing, honestly, the way I thought it should be. I know, I'm not a speech pathologist, don't judge. But I am a mom and a teacher. I was not comparing him to big sister, Reese who was talking in complete sentences by 2yo. I just wanted him to say more than one word and another indistinct word. He was saying the minimum words he could and he had a lot of jargon. I just thought maybe something was off at around 17 months. I am fortunate to work at a school with two wonderful speech pathologists (SLP's) who heard my concerns and encouraged me to just get him tested and see. They told me that early intervention is key and that at this young age, kids can make more progress than later in their childhood. I thought that all made sense to me, so I took him in to Scottish Rite for an evaluation.

It was all so fascinating. She tested his mouth muscles to be sure he could pronounce certain sounds appropriate to his age. She tested his Receptive Language and Expressive Language with the REEL-3. He tested 3 months ahead in Receptive Language - the ability to listen, understand, follow instructions - Cognitive part. Then he tested 5 months behind in Expressive Language - the ability to express himself in words, expressions, etc. With that gap, the SLP suggested he get treatment - once a week therapy.

I was so proud of Tillman, the way he listened so well to the SLP and did not pay any attention to me. The SLP was able to establish a good report with Tillman and made him feel comfortable. Comfortable enough to display all the things I was concerned about in his speech. She ruled out some scary (for me) prognoses and said he had a possible Phonological Disorder/Speech Disturbance. His strengths include his receptive language skills, cognitive skills and that he was socially engaging (a big phew!) So we are ALL going to work on his expressive language skills.

The SLP from his first session of therapy gave us things we can all work on with him. I feel pretty good about this whole process. I'm glad I went ahead and did this. I did not want him to start getting frustrated during school while his classmates were engaged in conversations. He is not frustrated now and I didn't want to wait for that to send him to get tested. They anticipate short-term therapy for about 6 months. I am so happy we are fortunate enough to go through this process with him and give him an opportunity to grow and communicate better.