Speech & Language Evaluations
Individualized speech and language evaluations for toddlers, preschoolers, and school-aged children in Austin, Texas.
A personalized speech and language evaluation helps us understand your child's communication strengths, identify areas where they may need support, and determine whether speech therapy may be beneficial. Every evaluation is individualized, play-based, and tailored to your child's unique strengths and needs, with personalized recommendations to help guide your family's next steps.
What to Expect
Parent Consultation
We'll start by talking about your concerns, your child's communication development, medical and developmental history, and your family's goals. This conversation helps us better understand your child before beginning the speech and language evaluation.
Play-Based Evaluation
Through play, observation, and a variety of assessment methods, we'll evaluate your child's speech, language, and communication skills in a way that's engaging, individualized, and tailored to their age and unique needs.
Results & Recommendations
After the evaluation, we'll review the results together, answer your questions, provide a detailed written evaluation report, and share personalized recommendations to support your child's communication development.
Areas We Evaluate
Every speech and language evaluation is individualized based on your child's age, communication needs, and your family's concerns. Depending on your child, the evaluation may include assessment of the following areas.
Receptive Language-How your child understands language, including following directions, answering questions, understanding vocabulary, learning new concepts, and processing spoken language.
Expressive Language-How your child communicates wants, needs, thoughts, and ideas through vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure, storytelling, and conversation.
Speech Sound Development-Speech clarity, articulation, and speech sound patterns that may make your child difficult to understand.
Motor Speech-Motor planning and coordination for speech, including signs of childhood apraxia of speech and other motor speech differences.
Play & Social Communication-How your child communicates, interacts, and engages with others during play and everyday activities, including joint attention, turn-taking, and shared engagement.
Fluency-The flow of speech, including stuttering and other disruptions that may affect communication.
Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC)-Evaluation of communication supports and AAC options for children who may benefit from additional ways to communicate.
Oral Motor Skills-Observation of the structures and movements used for speech and feeding, when appropriate.
Every evaluation is individualized.
No two children communicate the same way. Every evaluation is thoughtfully tailored to your child's unique strengths, communication needs, and your family's concerns to provide personalized recommendations that support meaningful communication
Frequently Asked Questions
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A speech and language evaluation may be appropriate if your child is difficult to understand, has difficulty expressing their wants or ideas, has trouble understanding language or following directions, is not meeting expected communication milestones, stutters, or you have concerns about their communication development. An evaluation can help identify your child’s communication strengths and areas of need and determine whether speech therapy or other recommendations may be appropriate.
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Most evaluations take approximately 60–90 minutes, depending on your child's age, communication needs, and level of participation.
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No referral is needed. As a private pay practice, you can contact Lotus Speech & Language Therapy directly to schedule an evaluation without waiting for insurance authorization or a physician referral.
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Yes. After the evaluation, you'll receive a detailed written evaluation report summarizing your child's communication strengths, areas of need, and personalized recommendations.
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Not necessarily. Some children may benefit from ongoing speech therapy, while others may only need home strategies, monitoring, or additional recommendations. We'll review the results together and discuss the recommendations that best support your child's communication needs.
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Absolutely! Parents are an important part of the evaluation process and remain with their child throughout the evaluation. Your insights and participation help us better understand your child's communication skills and ensure recommendations are meaningful for your family.
Ready to Learn More?
Whether you're looking for answers, have questions about your child's communication, or are wondering if a speech and language evaluation is right for your child, a free 15-minute consultation is a great place to start.
We'll talk through your concerns, answer any questions you have, and determine whether an evaluation is the right next step for your child.