District 75 Citywide Speech Services

Speech and Language Evaluation

Student: PT
OSIS#: 234015956
Date of Birth: 4/26/2010
Date of Evaluation: 2/3/16
D75 P255@P7; 6:1:1

Evaluator:
Amanda Pellegrino, MA, TSSLD, CCC-SLP
Speech Language Teacher

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The purpose of this report is to evaluate PT current level of performance and IEP goals for his re-
evaluation meeting held on February 4, 2016. PT is a 5;9 year old boy who has been diagnosed
with autism spectrum disorder. He is currently in a 6:1:1 program at PS255@P7 in Elmhurst,
New York. PT primarily understands English in school; however, he is exposed to both English
and Gujarati at home. PT is currently receiving speech and language services three times a week,
individually. Additionally, PT receives occupational therapy and physical therapy. He wears
glasses in school. PT demonstrates tremors when he is excited, frustrated, and at rest.
Additionally, PT demonstrates lingual and labial weakness, which directly effects his ability to
produce phonemes. As per 2014-2015 IEP, therapy sessions target PT goal to request for items,
both present and not present, and comment during various activities. Sessions also target his goal
to request for “help” by exchanging the corresponding symbol. Additionally, the therapist targets
PT goal to imitate words (CV, CVC, and one syllable words) during an activity. Therapy sessions
also focus on PT’s goal to identify pieces of clothing, common objects, and pictures of familiar
people during activities.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

PT is nonverbal, and currently communicates his wants and needs using a picture exchange
communication system. PT also uses a variety of gestures (i.e pointing, body language, facial
expressions) when communicating with peers and adults. Additionally, PT will often grunt to
express frustration, or produce CV /ma/ in order to gain the attention of adults. As per teacher
and paraprofessional report, and therapist observations, PT requires verbal prompting in order to
appropriately gain the attention of adults and peers; as he will often initiate an interaction by
pulling, pushing, or grabbing the communicative partner.

With regards to PT current IEP goals, he is able to discriminate between an array of picture
symbols (10-15) when making a request. Given prompts, and when highly motivated, PT will
construct his sentence strip with a stationary “I want” symbol and the desired item, take it off,
and hand it to the communicative partner. Additionally, given verbal and gestural prompting, PT
will go into his communication book and remove the symbol for a desired item. With regards to
his goal to request for “help” by exchanging the corresponding picture symbol, PT requires
prompts to reach for the present symbol and hand it to the therapist. At this time, PT is using his
communication book primarily to request for items and assistance, as he is not yet commenting
on activities, picture scenes, and peer actions. PT is able to identify common objects and articles
of clothing during various activities. However, PT continues to demonstrate significant difficulty
imitating words. Despite maximum physical, verbal, visual and gestural prompting, PT
demonstrates difficulty producing voicing, and hence, phonemes. It is worth noting, and as
mentioned before, PT will produce /ma/ in order to gain attention from adults. Additionally,
when prompted, he will also produce the vowel /o/ when requesting for items to be opened.

PT transitions easily to therapy sessions. He is seen three times a week individually; however,
one of his sessions is held in the classroom during a collaborative lesson with the special
education teacher in order to generalize skills and facilitate appropriate peer interactions. PT
benefits from constant repetition and routine in the classroom, as well as a visual schedule to
follow during speech sessions and throughout the day. Additionally, PT is highly motivated by
sensory toys (i.e gak, play dough, sensory sand), electronics, music, and certain edibles (i.e
chocolate milk). He is engaged in most speech sessions held in the therapy room; however, PT is
easily distracted, and it can be difficult for him to attend to and participate in tasks when he is in
the classroom. PT expresses anger and/or frustration by making grunting noises, and will often
cross his arms, pout, and refuse to participate. This often occurs when PT is given instructions, or
does not want to do something.
It is recommended for PT to continue speech and language services at a mandate of 3x30:1. It is
also recommended for PT to continue to be seen twice in the therapy room, and once in the
classroom during a collaborative lesson in order to generalize learned skills, as well as facilitate
appropriate peer interactions.

TESTING
The therapist used Evaluating Acquired Skills in Communication - Third Edition (EASIC-3) to
assess PT communication skills. According to the EASIC-3 Receptive Level 1, PT is able to
identify common objects and familiar people by noun labels/agents. He is also able to match
objects to pictures, match identical pictures, and identify pictures of common objects by noun
labels. PT is able to identify objects by function, and a picture of an object by its function.
Additionally, he is able to respond to action pictures by indicating verbs. PT is able to
comprehend color adjectives and attributes.

PT demonstrates emerging skills in identifying body parts and pictures of clothing by noun
labels, responding to simple directional commands involving objects and body parts, responding
to action commands, and responding to “who,” “what,” and “where” questions.

PT was unable to respond to commands involving two objects. He also demonstrated difficulty
identifying pictures of familiar people by noun agents, as well as sequencing pictures. PT was
unable to respond to two-word phrases (i.e girl eating), to location commands involving objects,
and to prepositional location commands involving objects. PT displayed difficulty
comprehending association of objects, and size and number adjectives and attributes (big, little).

In order to assess PT social skills, the therapist administered the Social Skills Checklist. Skills
were assessed and rated according to a scale of, “almost always,” “often,” “sometimes,” and
“almost never,” and further grouped by priority to target in instruction. As per the Social Skills
Checklists, and based on PT performance in therapy, therapist observations, and teacher report,
PT is a social child who demonstrates a desire to interact with his peers. He almost always
initiates and returns greetings with peers. PT is also able to express emotions through gestures
(i.e crossing arms and pouting when angry or upset). He is also able to identify emotions in his
peers, and will bring it to a staff member’s attention by pointing. PT displays affection towards
adults and peers, as he will allow others to comfort him when upset/agitated, and is motivated by
verbal praise.

However, he struggles to appropriately gain attention, as he will often grab, push, or pull adults
and peers. Additionally, PT does not take turns during structured/unstructured activities with his
peers. If PT is frustrated with his peers, he demonstrates aggressive behaviors towards them (i.e
push, pull hair, grab). PT can become noncompliant when he is told “no,” or when he does not
prefer an activity; and he does not accept consequences of his behavior without becoming angry
or upset.

In addition to formal assessments, the therapist informally assessed PT across different school
environments (i.e classroom, cafeteria) and the community (i.e class trips). The therapist also
interviewed PT classroom teacher, and paraprofessionals, regarding PT performance across
various settings. Additionally, the therapist reviewed PT records, including previous progress
reports and evaluations in order to better understand his present level of performance, and
completed the CSS Communication Profile. As per performance in speech therapy, classroom
teacher/paraprofessional report, and previous records, PT requires prompting to use his picture
exchange communication book in order to appropriately request for items and assistance.
Additionally, he requires prompts in order to appropriately initiate an interaction with adults and
peers.

The therapist sent home an interest inventory and vocabulary checklist in order to better
understand how PT communicates, and what his interests are. The therapist has observed PT
across all school environments (i.e therapy room, cafeteria, classroom, community) in order to
assess PT generalization of skills.

In conclusion, based on performance in therapy, teacher and paraprofessional report, and

observations, it is recommended for PT to continue speech and language therapy. It is
recommended for PT to receive services three times per week, individually. However, it is also
recommended for one session to be held in the classroom in order to facilitate peer interactions,
as well as generalization of skills across different settings and communicative partners.

Amanda Pellegrino, MA, TSSLD, CCC-SLP