J's CDSA evaluation is finally in...

Well it has now been a week since I wrote anything here.  Time has been slipping away from me.  Well that and I feel like 'why am I doing this blog anyway?'  Is anybody even reading this?  But I will carry on for now at least...

So I got my hands on a copy of J's evaluation report completed by the CDSA.  It was very thorough and professional and we agree with what it states.

They did the following evaluations:

Battelle Developmental Inventory, 2nd Edition

Childhood Autism Rating Scale (C.A.R.S.)

Preschool Language Scale IV

Clinical Observation of Functional Communication Skills

What did they find?

Well overall they saw pretty much the same things we see from day to day.  They obviously took our concerns and information into consideration and also expressed those in the report.

Battelle Developmental Inventory, 2nd Edition
~Adaptive  (Self Care & Personal Responsibility) - Mild Developmental Delay
~Personal/Social  (Adult Interaction, Peer Interaction, Self Concept & Social Role) - Significant Developmental Delay
~Communication (Receptive & Expressive) -  Significant Developmental Delay
~Motor (Gross, Fine & Perceptual) - Average
~Cognitive (Attention, Memory, Reasoning, Academic Skills, Perception & Concepts) - Mild Developmental Delay


Childhood Autism Rating Scale (C.A.R.S.)
We completed this screening tool together based on the Psychologist's interpretation of the questions/choices.  The possible score range is anywhere from 15-60 with 15 being normal (non-autistic) and 60 being severely autistic.  The 'cutoff' score for autism is 30.  We came up with a 35 which falls right on the threshold of mild or moderately autistic.  His highest elevations were verbal communication, listening response, visual response, activity level & relating to people.

 Preschool Language Scale IV
Auditory Comprehension - rated him at 1 year, 6 months (or 18 months)
Expressive Communication - rated him at 1 year, 9 months (or 21 months)
Total Language Score - rated him at 1 year, 7 months (or 19 months)

 Clinical Observation of Functional Communication Skills
Speech Sound Production - Delayed (limited for forming words)
Oral Motor Skills - Within Normal Limits
Voice - Within Normal Limits
Fluency - Within Normal Limits  *I don't agree with this one
Pragmatics - Atypical (delayed social communication skills)

 - They also noted below normal eye contact as well.

Another update...

So I requested a copy of B's Speech Evaluation and what did I find out?  He was diagnosed with a Developmental Speech Disorder and an Expressive Language Disorder.

So what does all that mean?

Well for the first part - the Developmental Speech Disorder - this includes a severe articulation & phonological delay.  According to the results of the assessment he is off the charts on the low end.  His score was equivalent to skills of a child between less than 2.6 years old to less than 2.9 years old.

As for the second part - the Expressive Language Disorder - this includes a mild language delay.  On this part of the assessment, the scoring is broken between basically 'receptive' and 'expressive' language use.  For receptive language abilities, he was just a few months delayed from his actual age.  For the expressive language abilities, he was a year and a few months delayed from his actual age. 

It is SO wild to be able to know what you are working with.  It helps me to understand how to approach our method of homeschooling for the upcoming school year - Kindergarten!

I also should have added that the SLP (Speech Language Pathologist) said, "he has excellent potential to reach his goals."  So that is very encouraging.  I do believe it will take some time though to reach all of the goals that they have for us.  At least we have the plan in place and now can move forward on that.

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We are also still awaiting the written report from our Evaluation for Jase last week at the CDSA.  Once we have that we can start his speech therapy.  We are also waiting to get him an Occupational Therapy evaluation to see where to go from there...

So I am thankful that the boys checked out healthy yesterday at everyone's well visit.  Also, the great news is that we are now established with our new doctor and can work on getting the appropriate referrals that we need.