Need Expressive Language Expert ASAP

Investigate wether your local hospitals or universities have speech and language clinics that would do an evaluation for you.

What tests was your child given and what was the outcome?

This will give me a good idea of why she was dismissed. Also, tell about what difficulties she is having and what her strengths are

There are no local expressive language experts to my knowledge but I will double check. Thanks

Thanks for your quick response. Our private Speech and Language Pathologist did a language sample test on her and scored it noting all of the grammatical and syntactical errors one by one. She is well below the “Production Characteristics of Linguistic Development Organized by Brown’s Stages” for her age. The public school reviewed her test but did not accept it because it is not a standarized test. That’s the problem we are having. There are not too many tests to our knowledge that really measure expressive language. The public school did a CELF-Preschool that has an Expressive Language portion testing 3 areas (Recalling Sentences in Context with a raw score of 18 and a standard score of 7, Formulating Labels RS of 32 and SS of 13, and Word Structure RS of 11 and SS of 9)She got an Expressive Language Score of 98, while her Receptive Language Score was 102. Her total language score for that test was 100. They also did an Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test with a Raw Score of 43 and Standard Score of 100. They also did a Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Preschool that she score 100 on. And they did their own informal. language sample test. The school has been very difficult and will not give us copies of her Standarized evaluations quoting Copyright laws. They have also tried to delay my access to see the file so it has been difficult to interpret her errors. They agree that “grammatical and syntactical errors but they are calling them developmental “within age appropriate parameters.” An expressive language expert would probably know if these tests were meaningful at all or if other more specific tests can be done. It comes down to us proving them wrong. We are filing for an Independent Evaluation and really need someone with expertise in expressive language disorders.

Thanks for your quick response. Our private Speech and Language Pathologist did a language sample test on her and scored it noting all of the grammatical and syntactical errors one by one. She is well below the “Production Characteristics of Linguistic Development Organized by Brown’s Stages” for her age. The public school reviewed her test but did not accept it because it is not a standarized test. That’s the problem we are having. There are not too many tests to our knowledge that really measure expressive language. The public school did a CELF-Preschool that has an Expressive Language portion testing 3 areas (Recalling Sentences in Context with a Raw Score of 18 and a Standard Score of 7, Formulating Labels RS of 32 and SS of 13, and Word Structure RS of 11 and SS of 9)She got an Expressive Language Score of 98, while her Receptive Language Score was 102. Her total language score for that test was 100. They also did an Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test with a Raw Score of 43 and Standard Score of 100. They also did a Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Preschool that she scored100 on. And they did their own informal. language sample test. The school has been very difficult and will not give us copies of her Standarized evaluations quoting Copyright laws. They have also tried to delay my access to see the file so it has been difficult to interpret her errors. They agree that “grammatical and syntactical errors are present” but they are calling them developmental “within age appropriate parameters.” An expressive language expert would probably know if these tests were meaningful at all or if other more specific tests can be done. It comes down to us proving them wrong. We are filing for an Independent Evaluation and really need someone with expertise in expressive language disorders. She is very smart and is a very easy child. She scored as high as 7 year olds in some of the receptive subtests they gave her. She just started occupational therapy for motor planning, low muscle tone bodywide, not crossing midline automatically, and are now suspecting some slight processing issues. She is scheduled for a Central Auditory Battery Test next week with an Audiologist. A concern that I have is that last summer she regressed and her lips and facial muscles got very weak again and her speech suffered. My other concern is that when she has a thought, an idea, I think she knows what she wants to say but half way through the sentence she’ll pause, get stuck and finally just switches and changes the sentence to something easier that she can say. She can make herself understood but not always fluently. She has oral motor issues so her articulation of individual words is good but breaks down in conversation. and is “characterized with multiple sound substitutions, omissions and some vowel distortions.” Any help you can offer would be much appreciated.

Sounds like she has verbal Apraxia to me because of her oral motor issues.The scores on the language tests look good but it sounds like she needs oral motor therapy. I would look on the web for Speech Dynamics and Char Boshart’s oral motor therapy. You could purchase some materials and work with her at home. She has the cognition, and langauge comprehension she just is experiencing difficulty with articulating what she wants to say.