10 things the speech therapist wants to know about your child at the 1st speech therapy appointment?

As a parent of two young children and a practicing speech language pathologist, I can relate how it feels to want to compare everything about our own children with others. I can also empathize how it feels to want to compare ourselves with other parents because of how our own child/children behave and perform in all areas. Once we start comparing, we start to wonder... "is my child normal?" "why is my child not talking as much?" "Why can't other people understand my child?" Or we may feel, "oh, it's just a phase and it will be better." But how do we know if how they talk is typical or we must take action immediately?

I think a lot of times, we just don't know. But don't fret, because the good news is that we have many resources that are readily accessible to us. The American Speech-Language and Hearing Association (ASHA) has resources for developmental norms that parents can use to determine if they want to reach out for more support. ASHA also has helpful guides to boost your child's speech and language development; even if your child is communicating well, it can be useful to support them with specific strategies in your daily activities.

It can also be helpful to reach out to your child's physician or school teachers for a screening to see if further assessments with a speech language pathologist can be beneficial. They may also have resources to share with you, so you can start supporting your child's communication development at home. Often times, parents are already contributing to their child's communication development, and they just need some education and guidance to strengthen their skills to support their children at home. I often tell the families I work with that they are their precious little ones' very own speech language pathologists, and they can help their children thrive by just slightly changing how they interact with their children daily with the support and resources speech therapists provide. Parents often share seeing their children improve after they start working with them at home.

It can be stressful and overwhelming to have to go to any medical evaluation for your child. So I want to support you to have a more successful visit in the case where a speech language evaluation is recommended. Before heading to your child's speech therapy appointment, I suggest that you start observing and jotting down notes about how your child communicates. This can help the pediatric speech therapist paint a more accurate picture of your child's strengths and challenges. The speech therapy test results will also be more reliable and beneficial for therapy if needed. Here are some of the questions the speech therapist may ask you or observe your child do during the visit besides asking you what your concerns are.

1. When did your child start babbling? When was their first word, 2 word combination (e.g., mama go, bye dada), 3 word combinations (e.g., I like doggies). If your child is using phrases or sentences to communicate, what are you observing in terms of how they use their sentences (e.g., How many words combination? Are they complete sentences?)?

2. How many words does your child say now (even if they do not sound accurate, as long as they are consistently being used for specific items)?

3. Has there been regression? Did your child lose words?

4. Any family history of speech and language delays? Other medical history and allergies?

5. Does your child follow directions? How many steps (e.g., 1 step: put on your shoes; 2 steps: go to the room and get me a diaper)?

6. Does you child have same age children to play/interact with? How often?

7. How many weeks gestation was your child born at?

8. How is your child's hearing?

9. What is/are the language(s) spoken at home? What is the primary language?

10. Any history of therapy and current therapy? What kind and how long?

These are some commonly asked questions, but you can share anything you feel is important with the therapist. I always tell the parents that I trust them because they know their child much much better than I do and sometimes testing tools just cannot catch what the parents are observing.

Another tool I usually share with parents is to keep a list of words the child says and understands in all languages they speak. Create a list of words the child says and a list of words the child understands on a common area for all caretakers (e.g., dad, mom, grandparents, nannies, etc.) to add to the list. This way, it is easy to see and to share if the child is making progress (i.e., saying more words).

It can also be helpful to start talking to your child about the appointment that a speech therapist or "one of your friends" will be chatting with them to get to know them more a week or so before the appointment.

Many speech therapy settings provide parent training in addition to testing, so always ask if that is available to you or reach out to local private practices to inquire. I often see children start making progress (e.g., speaking more) at home after parents start implementing what they learn from parent training sessions. The key to help your child improve in their speech and language skills is to keep practicing whenever and wherever possible.

If you are curious about how to find a speech therapist that may work for you and your family, you may find this discussion helpful.

If you would like to learn more about speech therapy and our setting, you can call or text us at 818.823.8022 or email us at hello@thechatroomtherapy.com.

We provide virtual speech therapy visits/telehealth visits in California, and in home services in Montrose, La Crescenta, La Canada, and Pasadena, CA areas.

We also provide speech therapy in Mandarin Chinese. 中文/國語語言治療

Vicki Chia Hui Lin, M.S., CCC-SLP

Founder, The Chat Room Therapy

Vicki is a California licensed and American Speech Language and Hearing Association certified speech language pathologist. She has extensive experience with both adults and children, with particular specialties in gender affirming voice therapy, adult voice disorders, post stroke or head and neck cancer related voice, communication, cognitive, and swallow difficulties.