Speech evaluation? - Gifted Issues Discussion Forum

I'm lifting these out of another thread so as not to derail it.

Originally Posted by Stacyshoe

He does follow single-step instructions well. I've noticed that he will grab on to one word or concept if I give more complex instructions. If I say, "Go downstairs and get the book that is beside your pencil box." He might come back with the pencil box.

Originally Posted by geofizz

Go get a speech eval. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. By 4, he should be able to understand that slightly more complicated example and execute correctly.

Really? Are you saying this in the context of other advanced abilities, or in general for all kids? Because my DS4 could never in a million years actually follow that instruction. He wouldn't come back with the pencil box or the book, and he'd be lucky to make it down the stairs before being distracted by something else. Is it really an age-appropriate expectation that he could do this?

He turned 4 at the end of May. He's been reading for six months or so, and is generally able to follow one-step instructions when we're right there with him, but telling him to go somewhere else and do something, then come back, seems like a nonstarter. He also really struggles with spatial relationships - doesn't seem to know what to do with directions like "look under the couch" or "look behind the curtain." We know that he has sensory processing issues (as does DD8) - is this part of that, or should we be looking for something else?

My dd is 9 and still has problems with complex directions, so I could totally see her doing this. She also scored low on receptive language on her eval, 16th % I think.

There's a sequence of what's easier and harder in an instruction.

Passive phrases are harder to understand than active ones, but for that instruction, I would have at a minimum expected a 4 year old to at least get a book from downstairs (maybe not the one that was next to the pencil case). It's a command containing two tasks (go downstairs and get the book), but with a passive phrase modifying which book. (Edit: see below, it appears this spatial sense is not yet in place for a 4 year old. Learned something new...)

I love the PBS development tracker, because it's sufficiently detailed, and it really helps sort out normal bounds on average development, while making it clear what's out of bounds of normal development. This is the site that convinced me to get a speech eval for my then 3.5 year old son, and this is the site that later helped reassure me that DS' math development was highly unusual.

See the second example under "Language Comprehension" here:
http://www.pbs.org/parents/childdevelopmenttracker/four/language%20.html

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He turned 4 at the end of May. He's been reading for six months or so, and is generally able to follow one-step instructions when we're right there with him, but telling him to go somewhere else and do something, then come back, seems like a nonstarter.

I'd put this more under the heading of attention, not language comprehension.

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He also really struggles with spatial relationships - doesn't seem to know what to do with directions like "look under the couch" or "look behind the curtain." We know that he has sensory processing issues (as does DD8) - is this part of that, or should we be looking for something else?

This comes under the math section of the PBS tracker, which would indicate your 4 year old is right on target in still developing these skills:

http://www.pbs.org/parents/childdevelopmenttracker/four/mathematics.html

Originally Posted by PBS site

Throughout this year, some four-year-olds will understand and use words representing physical relations or positions (e.g., "over," "under," "above," "on," "beside," "next to," "in front," "behind," "in," "inside," "outside," "between," "up," "down," top," "bottom," "front," "back," "near," "far," "left," "right").

They place this as a late 5 year old skill for the average child.

I bookmarked that site - it is great. It also allows me to understand (now) just how far ahead DD8 really was in math when she was this age. (I thought that observations like, "Our family has six people: two grownups, two kids, and two cats. There are three girls and three boys. Four of them are humans and two of them are cats," were standard fare.)

That site needs more air time.

Yes, it started to dawn on me something was up with the math when I was finding the stuff that DS was figuring out as a 4 year old under the 8-9 year old section. At the same time, I found the speech/language section to be equally unfamiliar. They were discussing the grammar 3 year olds use, and single words don't count as a grammar.