Home Services Specialty
Programs Staff Referral
Guidelines Directions The Speech, Language, and Learning Center Lawrenceburg / Columbia, Tennessee
Suggestions for Appropriate Referrals Keep in mind that each speech language pathologist brings his or her own experience and guidelines into the diagnosis and treatment of a child, so unfortunately nothing is “set in stone” but fortunately no child is the same! Think about what a child should be doing by a certain age: By 12 months:
By 18 months:
By 24 months:
By 36 months:
Many times a two-year-old is referred because he/she is “not talking yet.” This is an appropriate referral. However, during the assessment, we take into consideration, not only the above expectations, but contributing factors such as hearing acuity and medical history, behavior problems, and oral-motor or feeding problems. For example, if the two-year-old is “not talking” but is hearing and eating ok and does not seem to have and behavior problems or symptoms of autism spectrum disorder we may not evaluate the child for 4 to 6 months to allow time to “close the gap” on a delay. Many times, if we have parents extremely concerned, we will go ahead and evaluate and then re-evaluated in six months.
Considerations:
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