The purpose of a speech-language evaluation is to determine your child’s strengths and challenges related to communication. Evaluation results help you decide if therapy can further develop your child’s skills and improve their ability to communicate.

University of Miami Health System pediatric audiologists and speech-language pathologists provide comprehensive speech-language therapy services to enhance your child’s ability to communicate.

Who is a Candidate?

As a parent or caregiver, you may request a speech-language evaluation if you believe your child has a communication problem. Children can also be referred to us by a pediatrician or teacher, or after a developmental screening.

What to Expect

You and your child take part in the evaluation. Typically, our speech-language evaluations include the following components:

• Background and developmental information: We gather information related to your child’s speech and language development, including birth history, age milestones, and significant medical history. We may request additional information from your child’s teacher.
• Caregiver interview: We ask you to share your major concerns, tell us what you’d like to achieve in the evaluation, and discuss the goals you have for your child. Depending on your child’s age and circumstances, your child may or may not attend this part of the evaluation.
• Assessment and observation of your child: Your child participates in structured and unstructured activities in a controlled setting that allows our therapist to assess your child’s general development, speech and language skills, reading and writing skills, and other important information.
• Evaluation report: We provide an evaluation report that identifies your child’s strengths and challenges. If your child can benefit from therapy, we provide our recommendations for helping your child improve their communication skills.

Why Choose UHealth?

Excellence in treating children’s hearing conditions. We’ve been recognized by Children’s Medical Services (CMS), a division within the Florida Department of Health, for excellence in newborn hearing screening and early identification of hearing loss in infants.

World-class health care for children. Children and their families come from all over the world to receive top-quality care from our compassionate team of pediatric specialists. Your child will receive personalized attention from doctors who are sought out for their expertise.

HealthySteps program helps children meet milestones. All our general pediatrics offices use the HealthySteps program to ensure that children are developing appropriately for their age — physically, emotionally, and psychologically. When there are issues or concerns, we work closely with patients and their families to connect them with support resources. We’re the only academic health center in South Florida with developmental and behavioral pediatric specialists on staff.