I am a bit late in entering this discussion, but have been reading it with great interest, as I also used the program as a beta tester. I have mixed feelings about it.
The mechanics of it are pretty straight forward, but it as others have mentioned there is no room for special circumstances. My DS8 did not talk beyond three or four words and some animal sounds as of age two, which is when I pushed the pediatrician to get help through early intervention. Turns out he needed tubes and was practically deaf, so of course he did not speak (a "worst parent ever" moment for not realizing it sooner.) However, he had compensated for his inability to speak by teaching us his own sign language (including signs for bulldozer and train.) And I remember at some point that he signed in sentences for all practical purposes. So, would this count as speech? Probably, but did I make notes of this milestone? Of course not.
I also had a child who may have been able to read as early as four years old, but hid it quite well until late kindergarten when we realized he was reading his Pokemon Cards. Plus he was never much into puzzles or mazes, but did love educational computer games geared to third grade before he was in kindergarten. There are more questions about puzzles than computer games on the assessment.
Net result on the assessment put him between level one and two. This did not quite correspond to his WISC-IV which put him comfortably into DYS territory.
Once you finish answering the questions, a graph is generated that shows several different areas and the corresponding level for each as well as an overall level. I would have been interested in all the information offered as suggestions for schools etc, except that the level generated was way off base so the information was not helpful. I already know for a fact that he does not get what he needs from a regular classroom supplemented by the gifted pull out.
I guess my main conclusion is that if you have a level four or five child, you have already figured out something is going on (especially some of the two and three year olds I see posted about around here) and don't know if it will really tell you something you don't already know or can't find in a library book. Ultimately, I think I would have been disappointed if I had paid for this assessment unless I fell into it before he was in Kindergarten. At that time, it might have helped me realize that he was not a typical child and we were not crazy for being overwhelmed by one child while people around us had two and three and did not seem so stressed.
Hope my rambling made sense.
