& Tricia - Help with Assessment Tests

[Guest guest]

Dear and Tricia and All,

I wonder if you could help me with our struggle to get appropriate

assessments done for our 25-month old daughter, Lulu.

She has had two batteries of tests:

1) at 21 months - Receptive-Expressive Emergent Language scale (REEL-2) by

an American SLP

2) at 24 months - Bayley Scales of Infant Development II (BSID-II, Dutch

version) by developmental psychologist (test done in English, scored and

report written in Dutch) for perception, cognition, speech, motor.

I understand from the Late Talker book that these may not be appropriate

assessment tests for children with motor planning and coordination problems

-- and Lulu officially has " all the childhood signs of apraxia of speech and

motor apraxia " according to the pediatric neurologist. Indeed, motor issues

(gross/fine/speech are her significant, biggest issue.

In the book, you mention 2 tests that would be appropriate for the

evaluation of a 25-month old child with motor planning disorders who is

nonverbal/unintelligible:

1. Kaufman Speech Praxis Test for Children (KSPT)

2. Leiter-R International Performance Scale

I would add to that the Greenspan Functional Emotional Assessment Scale

(FEAS)

Are these the only tests that would be appropriate for our daughter and

which would give a more comprehensive picture to us and -- most importantly

-- to her therapists? We feel as though the results that come back -- and

particularly the age equivalency labels that are attached to the report and

thus to our daughter -- are always brought down to Lulu's lowest functional

ability, her weakest skills. They never take into consideration or account

for -- in fact, they discount entirely -- the areas in which she would

score at an older age equivalent level. And of course, if motor planning

and coordination is her main problem -- then she will score VERY poorly on

tests that require her to carry out tasks that she absolutely cannot carry

out-- tests that test for verbal reasoning or that require her to carry out

tasks that a child with motor planning problems cannot easily do. This is

particularly frustrating in that she is then not evaluated and treated as a

multi-faceted individual with areas that need work and areas that are doing

just fine. Hearing that at age 24 months (23 months gestation-adjusted),

Lulu scores in BSID-II at 11 months makes us feel as thought all the

professionals are wringing their hands and thinking that she must be

retarded! But this is not the case at all, as stated by the pediatric

neurologist.

I do not know if these tests are available in the Netherlands -- I believe

that the KSPT is not available in Dutch, but do not know about the Leiter-R.

I do know that there is a center in Amsterdam that uses Stanley Greenspan's

DIR/Floortime methodology -- the Dutch director studied with Greenspan and

is certified in the US and the Netherlands. It is my feeling that their

assessment batteries will give us the kind of holistic look at our daughter

that we feel she needs and deserves -- particularly in the absence of other

diagnostic tools appropriate to her disorder.

What do you think? Can you give me any more advice on all of this? I would

GREATLY appreciate your expertise on all this!

Best,

Theresa

Mother of Lulu, 25 months, apraxia of speech, motor apraxia (dyspraxia --

what are we calling it?), mild diffuse PVL, poor growth, probably

vaccine-damaged (still having tests done).

Amsterdam