Assessment

Holistic Speech Pathology - Assessment - Comprehensive speech pathology assessment

A comprehensive assessment is critical to understanding your child’s communication profile, diagnosis, the impact of any difficulties and appropriate recommendations for treatment.

Assessments are tailored to the individual child, based on the information you provide. When you book an assessment, you will provide information about your child through a Client History Form and pre-assessment appointment.

With your consent, we may also gather information from educators, health professionals or other relevant people to understand their needs in different environments and the functional impact of their challenges.

What To Expect

When you bring your child to the clinic for a comprehensive assessment, we use a number of strategies to evaluate their skills, strengths, challenges and preferences. Activities are selected by combining your child’s preferences and needs, with the most recent evidence for quality assessment of your child’s presenting concerns.

The aim is to collect the right information in an efficient way that is also engaging, fun and calming for your child. We use culturally safe and responsive assessment processes to support bilingual and multilingual speakers. Our assessments address the link between language, literacy, fluency, speech and behavioural development.

We request that all parents are present for the assessment so that the findings and recommendations and their role make sense to them. Parents can discuss any concerns about their presence at the assessment in the initial consultation.

Holistic Speech Pathology - Assessment - Standardised testing for communication skills

Here is what a typical assessment looks like:

Holistic Speech Pathology - Assessment - Play based assessment for speech and language

Play or task-based interactions

These activities are designed to observe and record your child’s speech/language/fluency in a natural, conversational context. Age-appropriate play or tasks are selected to elicit natural speech and we will intentionally shape the sessions as we go to elicit the information needed for analysis.

Standardised Testing

Formal assessment tools are an important part of the comprehensive assessment as they provide a structured way to assess a child’s skills in specific areas. Many of the assessment tools need to be administered by a qualified speech pathologist as they require specific training to analyse and interpret the results.

Assessment sessions typically run for 1 hour and the number of sessions required will depend on your child’s needs, their response to the assessment and any new information arising throughout the course of the assessment.

Holistic Speech Pathology - Assessment - Developmental language disorder standardised testing assessment in North Perth WA
Holistic Speech Pathology - Assessment - Assessment report and therapy recommendations

Analysis and interpretation

Following the assessment, the data from all assessment tasks is collated, reviewed, analysed and interpreted for meaning. The length of time required depends on the complexity of the assessment.

Outcome

A summary of the findings and recommendations is presented to you in writing and during a verbal feedback session. The best available evidence is used to help you make informed decisions about the next steps for your child. Detailed reports are available on request and incur an hourly fee.

Request A Booking

Please call (08) 6388 1508 or use the below form to request a booking.

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Frequently Asked Questions

These are the common questions we receive. If you have any further questions not covered here, please contact us.

An individually tailored assessment of your child’s strengths and challenges, based on the presenting concerns and impact of the challenges. It includes a pre-assessment consultation, direct formal assessment of your child, observation, sampling and analysis which are used to make a differential diagnosis. It provides critical information to inform therapy recommendations.

Screening is used to determine if a comprehensive assessment is required. A comprehensive assessment is an in-depth assessment aimed at differentiating between the presenting concerns and other possible diagnoses.

Direct assessment with your child can take 1-3 hours, depending on the presenting concerns.

Assessments range from $388 – $775, depending on the complexity and length of assessment required. If you would like a quote, please contact us.

Pre-assessment consultation, direct assessment with child (1-3 hours), information gathering from key people, materials included to conduct the assessment, analysis of the data collected, consultation with other professionals, collating appropriate evidence for recommendations, a written summary report and a follow up appointment to discuss the findings and recommendations.

We are experienced in conducting assessments with children of all needs and make every effort to ensure that sessions feel safe, engaging, fun and achievable. Parents are an important part of this process, and we prepare for assessments together in the pre-assessment appointment. Even if an assessment session doesn’t go to plan, we can adapt and collect the information we need in creative ways.