Ent/developmental Eval... What to Expect?

Not sure on the ENT eval, but I can clarify the developmental eval for you (was my job as a psychologist for many years).

Yes, it will be a room with a handful of specialists, including you b/c you are the "specialist" on your child! They are not necessarily doctors, but will all hold at least one advanced degree in their area of expertise. Your child will be engaged in different play activities (at least he'll think they are playing) and the social worker will be asking you a ton of questions about his early development- you may want to bring the baby book if you don't remember ages/dates! The specialists will observe your child playing, communicating and relating to them and to the objects (all specifically chosen) in the room.

Afterwards they will not "grade" him, but compare his demonstrated skills against the development of "typical" children. You will receive a report that highlights your child's 'percentile" ranking in the five major areas of development (Cognition, Language, Social-emotion, Fine Motor, Gross Motor). Percentiles are not the same as percentages. Percentiles reflect the "percent of children who would score below your child" on a specific skill. For example, if your child was at the 15% percentile for expreseive language, it means that 85% of his same-age peers are better able to engage in those skills.

Areas that are weak will be addressed through your county's Early Intervention program. The therapists will work with you in your home to further your child's skills. Good luck and feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions or when you get the report! They are long and very technical!

**Lots of my grad school cronies do the EI/ preschool evals for Henrico and Richmond City. Let me know if you need anything!

At my son's 18 month checkup, I filled out the M-CHAT. You can google it and the scoring criteria. There will be warnings that laypersons are not supposed to use it, but whatever. Based on my son's scoring on the M-CHAT, his pediatrician gave us a referral to audiology and to developmental peds. Because of his young age, there were only so many of the normal battery of tests they could run, but audiology found no problem with his hearing. We were in a sound-proof room with things positioned at different points and an observation window. My son sat on my lap while the controller made a monkey with cymbols clang in the corner and watched to see if my son looked in the direction of the sound. For instance. Then they put little earphones in his ears to do some other test, but everything came out OK.

His developmental eval involved a Developmental Pediatrician, a Pediatric Speech Pathologist, and a child psychologist. They took turns playing with him and talking with me. At the end, they said while it may be too early for him to be tested for all the criteria for "Autism" he hits enough of the bullet points to qualify for the diagnosis. The pediatrician said the only value such a label has is for the doors to interventions that is opens.

Two years later, my son gets OT for sensory issues, speech therapy and ABA. He is making progress.

Feel free to PM me if you need more specifics. And best wishes.

When my son was evaluated I had no idea the evaluation was actually 'going on' at the time - until they were done and started bringing out their notes/graphs/etc. and telling us their findings. I believe there were 4 specialists, me and my husband, and my son in the room. The entire time they asked us all sorts of history questions from the moment he was conceived to that day and engaged with him, tried little games/tests with him. Pretty much one specialist would engage with him while the others asked us questions and so on. We've had other evaluations throughout his 4.5 years so really, I don't mind them and am certainly not worried about them - the followups are awesome as I can sit and think, "wow, I forgot he was at such and such point last time, look how far he's come!!!!"

Good luck - I was an emotional roller coaster going through all of this with my son, worried what would be said and how our lives would be - mainly being told he'd possibly have challenges all through his life, etc.

Start making all kids of lists - number of words and all of the milestone timelines, concerns you have, things you think are good signs, what your pregnancy was like, etc. etc.

depending upon the ENT - they will run a hearing test...at his age - they may have to use his eyes as the gauge for the sound they will be giving him...I don't know...

They will also check his ears - they may even do an audioscope - a small camera to look into his ears....they'll look at his throat as well...

They might get him to try and talk....not just the hearing thing...however, it's been 8 years since I've been for my kids....

I would also think they will refer you to a speech pathologist if they can't find anything wrong with his hearing...you need to follow your gut instinct and don't give up!!!

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