Collaborative Speech, Language and Hearing Evaluations

In line with screening best practice, my business partner—audiologist Melissa Wilson—and I offer a hearing screening with every speech-language evaluation in our private practice. From the early planning stages, collaboration through joint evaluation has been the focus of our practice. After some trial and error, we devised a fiscally smart system that provides a holistic snapshot of a child’s communication skills to their family. So how does it work? When a family books an appointment at our clinic, we arrange for a joint evaluation to determine if hearing loss is a contributing factor to a speech-language delay. We schedule a 90-minute appointment involving the following steps: The evaluation occurs in a sound booth. My partner and I get the patient’s medical history, chief concern and basic developmental history to help the child become more familiar with the testing space and us. (10 minutes) I complete the speech-language evaluation while Melissa steps outside the booth to start the evaluation report and observe the child’s listening during testing. (50 minutes) I then act as test assistant for the hearing test. The child is usually more willing to accept headphones after a period of acclimation in the sound booth and getting comfortable working with us. I support Melissa while she takes objective measures from the child’s ears. This also helps my assessment, because I observe language and speech sounds as the child interacts with my partner. (25 minutes) ...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - Category: Speech Therapy Authors: Tags: Audiology Speech-Language Pathology Practice Management private practice Source Type: blogs