For children and students with hearing differences, schools and clinics are always looking for ways to measure, quantify, or score the way a child or student uses communication. There are so many things to consider when looking at the pieces that should be included in measuring communication skills. Let’s take a look at the differences between two types of communication evaluations: clinical and educational.
Clinical Communication Evaluations
If the evaluation is happening in a clinic, there are specific things that need to be considered:
- WHO? – The people that are doing the observing and making notes about the child’s responses are the evaluators. Members of the clinical evaluation team might include: speech-language pathologists, audiologists, auditory-verbal therapists, parents, and grandparents.
- WHAT? – The parts of communication that are being measured can include: listening to others, speaking to others, processing information, understanding others’ words/signs, using words/signs, the movement of the tongue/lips/teeth/breath, picking up on social cues, answering questions, asking for help, following directions, and paying attention to a task. If the observations indicate there might be needs in other areas of development, the person leading the evaluation might make a recommendation to follow up with other team members.
- WHEN? – The timing of clinical evaluations may occur at any of these times: at the start of a therapy plan, after getting a hearing test, every 3-6 months for insurance updates, any session as needed to track progress, every 12-18 months to monitor development if not in regular therapy, when a new communication need arises, to start a new episode of care, if communication skills/needs are changing. If your child with a hearing difference does not have someone checking in on their communication development, it might be time to schedule a clinical communication evaluation.
- WHERE? – The child is usually being observed and answering questions in a therapy room. This might provide slightly different results than if that same child was observed in their own home.
- WHY? – The reason for the evaluation might be to see if therapy is needed, to start therapy services, to track progress in therapy, to get insurance approval, or to participate in a research study. The purpose of the evaluation may dictate which measurement tools can be used.
Educational Communication Evaluations
If the evaluation is happening at the school, there are some specific things to consider that might be different than a clinical communication evaluation:
- WHO? – The people that are doing the observing and making notes about the student’s communication responses are the evaluators. Members of the educational evaluation team might include: speech-language pathologists, audiologists, teachers of the deaf, parent-infant advisors, case managers, diagnosticians, parents, and grandparents.
- WHAT? – For students with hearing differences, most state education programs require an Auditory Impairment Communication Evaluation that is separate from or in coordination with the school speech-language pathologist. These evaluations have specific areas outlined that need to be observed and commented on in some way. Sometimes in an educational evaluation, other team members may be doing observation within the same evaluation session. They might be looking at skills related to movement instead of communication, but the team members all observe and take notes at the same time.
- WHEN? – The timing of educational communication evaluations is pretty standard. The federal laws related to education say that a student can receive a Full Individual Evaluation (FIE) starting at age 3y, 0m. That FIE helps determine if the student is eligible to receive extra help in many areas, including communication. The federal law also requires that if a student does qualify for extra help and parents choose to get that extra help for their child, the FIE has to be repeated at least once every 3 years. Some situations require that a student participate in another FIE sooner than 3 years. Also, parents can request an FIE up to once every year. If your student with a hearing difference is not making progress in their communication development, it might be time to request an educational communication evaluation.
- WHERE? – The student is usually being observed and answering questions one-on-one with a teacher or other school professional. If this is the very first educational evaluation, the parent may be there, but most educational evaluations are completed while the student is at school. This might provide slightly different results than if that same student was observed in their home or in a therapy clinic.
- WHY? – The reason for an educational communication evaluation is often quite different than a clinical communication evaluation. Often the evaluation process starts with these questions: What grade are they going into? Do they have the communication skills needed to pass that grade? Do they need extra help to pass their grade? Will the extra help they get improve their performance in class? Will the extra help improve their ability to communicate with teachers and classmates? Is the extra help they have been getting working? Should the extra help they have been getting continue? These questions guide the reason for the evaluation and may guide which tools are used to make observations and measure skills. This process determines the “educational need” for extra help in the area of communication.
We will continue our discussion of Communication Evaluations in Part Two. For now, the thing to remember is that there is a difference between Clinical and Educational evaluations and that both types offer good insight about a child’s communication skills. I typically recommend that families get communication skills evaluated in BOTH clinical and educational settings. This can be most helpful in taking a look at the “big picture” of communication for their child.
Do you have an experience about communication evaluations that you would like to share? We would love to hear from you!
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