[MustangLippy]

Hi,

I just popped over from the Russian adoption forum hoping someone may be able to help me out.

My DD is 3.5 and as some of you know has had a lot of challenges since she came home at 12 months of age. She's come along remarkably well. Amazingly well. However her speech and/or cognitive development especially are still cause for concern.

Her speech therapist is very worried about her. However when she evaluated her most recently using the PLS it was found that she falls in the average range. Now my insurance probably won't pay for more ST.

I was wondering if anyone is familiar with the PLS and if they can tell me whether this test will detect APD-like problems? Emily has a wide vocabulary, she just has problems processing language.

She's too young to be officially diagnosed with APD however she's worked with 3 speech therapists and they all believe that this is what she has.

Is there another age-appropriate test that might highlight her problems betters than the PLS?

Thanks!
Angela

[Matushka]

The PLS cannot diagnose an auditory processing or language processing disorder. However, a significant discrepancy between the Auditory Comprehension score and the Expressive Communication score could suggest the need for further testing if the Auditory Comprehension portion is significantly below the Expressive Communication portion. The newer PLS-4 does look at some of the phonological awareness skills suggesting processing problems but those items would not normally be given at your child's age. Unfortunately, there are no reliable tests for children under the age of 5 or 6 to diagnose auditory processing disorders. Some tests will go as low as 4 but they are not usually comprehensive. Language processing can be assessed as early as 4 years, 0 months with the Language Processing Test-3. If the therapist has access to the CELF-P she may be able to tease out some of the problems your DD is having so that she can continue to receive services. If the therapist feels there is a need to continue services due to the processing problems s/he may be able to write the report and goals in such a way as to highlight the difficulties observed. It sounds as though you feel she needs to continue services, I hope they can make a way for that to happen. All the best!

[DannieAS]

As a speech therapist myself there are few tests under the age of 6 that can really look at language processing. For a more comprehensive look at language and any discrepancies between different areas of language I would suggest the CELF-P or the CASL (Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language)...even though the CASL offers more after age 6 even though it has a protocal for 3-6 years of age.