Scenario You are a speech pathologist in an early intervention, pre-school program for children who have severe intellectual disabilities. Joshua is 3;8 yrs (3 years 8 months) of age and attends the pre-school.

Scenario

You are a speech pathologist in an early intervention, pre-school program for children who have severe intellectual disabilities.

Joshua is 3;8 yrs (3 years 8 months) of age and attends the pre-school. He is due for a review assessment. This session with a speech pathologist is the start of this review process.

The most recent psychological assessment shows that Joshua presents with a significant developmental delay. He is yet to develop verbal words, and although staff at the centre use Key Word Signs with him he does not sign spontaneously, nor imitate the signs he sees.

From a brief observation of Joshua, you note that he mainly picks up and mouths toys, casting them away soon after this brief exploration. He enjoys adult contact and is briefly receptive when you go to speak to him.

You speak with Joshua's teacher, who reports that Joshua is not usually interested in classroom activities or toys.

• Consider which pre-linguistic skills would you need to assess.
• Use the Session Plan template to document your assessment plan for this one session. 
  • Outline 3 specific pre-linguistic skills you will assess (i.e. goals in your one session)
  • Why you will assess them (rationale)
  • How you will do it (methodology)
• Remember that this is only for one session, so it is not expected that all relevant assessment will be completed in this one session. Other team members are involved in this review but in this session, it is just you and the parent present. Focus on what you think is appropriate, possible, and important. Also note that this is a session focusing on informal/clinician led assessment activities, and not on intervention. You will however as the speech pathologist need to provide the context and resources in order to facilitate observation of behaviours