In our last post, we introduced you to a case study.  The SLP wanted to know if the bilingual 4-year-old would qualify for speech therapy.  Many, many questions arise when we are serving our diverse populations, and we appreciate the opportunity to collaborate with you to best provide for our clients and students.  Here is the low down on the specifics of the case:

One of the kids that I tested had a qualifying score in Spanish but not in English, we talked about it and you suggested that he should qualify and I should address the sounds that he struggles with in both languages.

In our earlier post, we addressed the errors the child had in both languages (and the specific sounds to address), how his age should be considered when developing goals and considerations for phonology.  Now, let’s talk about intelligibility.  The real determiner is intelligibility.

qualify for speech therapy with speech intelligibility

Out of 100 words, how many can you understand? These charts come out of an e-book that we are releasing today in case you are interested, Developmental Norms for Speech.

Hope this helps.

Scott

Hello and thank you for all your help! So, basically I would qualify due to intelligibility in dominant language correct? He is about 60% intelligible and is fronting…

Thanks!

How should he qualify for speech therapy?

Yes,  intelligibility is a key indicator of qualification because it gets past all of the difficulty between languages.  Someone from the child’s environment should be able to understand him or her, regardless of processes or errors present.  See the chart above for age-expected measures of intelligibility.

Secondly, yes, fronting should be suppressed at this age in both English and Spanish.

speech therapy goalsHere are some goals from our Goal Bank that would apply to this student:

Will be 80% intelligible at the word/phrase/sentence level.

Será del 80% inteligible al nivel de la palabra/frase/oracion.

Will reduce the process of fronting by producing velar sounds (i.e., /k, g/) in words at the [word/phrase/sentence] level in 7/10 opportunities with minimal/moderate/maximal cues.

Disminuirá el proceso de frontalización al producir los sonidos velares (ej. /k,g/) en palabras al nivel de [palabra/frase/oración]  en 7/10 de las oportunidades con ayuda mínima/mediana/maxima.

 Best Regards,

Scott

More Resources:

Difference or Disorder Book

ASHA – Eligibility and Dismissal in Schools

Region 13 | TSHA Speech Impairment Eligibility Guidelines (Texas)

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