As evaluators, we should look to the parent in these interviews as the expert in their child’s development, over time and in various contexts, to give us critical information leading to a differential diagnosis. In this second module, Cate reviews the critical questions that should be asked of the parent during an evaluation and begins the first part of the interview with Alex’s mother.
Category: Early Intervention (EI)
Early Intervention (EI) is a program that was created in 1986 under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The program provides services for infants and toddlers with disabilities. To be eligible for services in New York State, the child must be 3 years old or younger and have a disability or delay in one or more areas of development (e.g. physical, cognitive, communication, socio-emotional, and adaptive). The requirements for eligibility may differ from state to state.
Why an Accurate Differential Diagnosis Matters (DDPE Playlist: Module 1)
In this module, Cate introduces the DDPE module series by discussing why it is so important to get an accurate diagnosis. She does so by demonstrating a real-life evaluation step by step.
Read More
Model Eval: Psych Evaluation 2;9- Autism Spectrum Disorder
ModelPsychEval-29AutismSpectrumDisorder.pdf
This evaluation was done by David Usdan, PhD for a 2-9 month old boy diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Read More
Contemporary Approaches to Intervention: Early Start Denver Model (ESDM)
The Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) is an interdisciplinary early intervention approach to autism that aims to alleviate symptoms of autism and accelerate children’s development. Read More
International Resources: Feeding Babies with Cleft Palate with Breast/Cup: Parent Handout in English
FEEDING BABIES WITH CLEFT PALATE.pdf
This handout was based on the original by Dr. Cate Crowley, Miriam Baigorri, and Jayne Miranda for Dr. Crowley’s international work in East Africa. It is a parent friendly single page document with easy to understand language and accompanying illustrations to help parents understand the basics of feeding a baby with cleft palate using a cup or the breast.
Parent Training and Home Practice: How Much is Too Much?
More and more, researchers in speech-language intervention are confirming what practitioners have suspected for years: that intensity matters. Research has suggested early, intensified intervention is most effective in rapid, long-lasting improvement. It would be wonderful if we, as clinicians could accommodate every child or adult 5x weekly for hours at a time. Unfortunately, conventions of time, insurance, and practicality render that infeasible for ourselves as well as our clients. In particular for young children, where such a great impact can be made with early, intense, intervention, scheduling 1-2 sessions per week is difficult enough.
The natural solution is to foster carryover and development of skills through parent and caregiver training, but often conveying importance of home practice is difficult. And, caregivers have such busy schedules, even 10 minutes a day feels like asking a lot. Beyond that, it’s a difficult, fragile line to tread when training parents on new strategies. Particularly for young clinicians without children of their own, such suggestions feel almost intrusive to make, presumptive. Of course, it’s vital to establish some sort of rapport with clients and families prior to this, to find out their daily schedules, values, practices, and work with them to figure out a valid solution.
Even so, it’s a very real fear to cross some line you didn’t know was there before. In New York City specifically, as a school-based SLP, I find it difficult to coordinate with parents, to establish carryover practices. Parents are overloaded and have other responsibilities. Children, too. But in schools—and realistically, in most clinics—they’re only receiving services twice, maximum three times weekly, usually at 30 minutes per session. That’s not nearly enough to make the sort of rapid impacts we know can be made. How can we stress the importance of daily language development practice at home when these families have so much else to worry about?
A question from a new clinician: How can we as clinicians stress the importance of intensity and establish carryover routines?
Holograms Part 2 (Preschool Disability Evaluations: Module 23)
This module sets the standard for a competent evaluation. Read More
Relevant Research: Recommending Intervention for Toddlers With Specific Language Learning Difficulties: We May Not Have All the Answers, But We Know a Lot
Source URL: View this document on the ASHA website
This review analyzed the literature available at the time in order to compile characteristics that would enable early intervention (EI) providers to distinguish between children who are “late talkers” but will likely catch up to their peers without therapy (as the majority do) and those who truly have a language disorder.
