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FAQ 8 |
Question
If a provider requires an assessment for a child prior to starting Fast ForWord training, what type of assessment is done?
What does it cost?
Does the provider accept recent assessment results provided by other parties (such as a school or other professional)?
Answer
We prefer to have an independent speech and language expert for pre- and post-testing, so we contract with local professionals for this.
The test instruments from which we usually select include:
- Test of Language Development (TOLD)
- Goldman-Fristoe-Woodcock Test of Auditory Discrimination (GFW)
- SCAN-C or SCAN-A (depending on age)
- Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP)
- Test of Word Reading Efficiency (TOWRE).
Immediately upon completing the testing and scoring the results, we verbally review the results with the parents drawing out the implications of those results. If we agree -- parents, consultant, and we at The Learning Clinic -- that the program is likely to be beneficial, then we will offer Fast ForWord.
Cost
We charge a separate fee of $125 for the pre-testing. For our pre-testing and post-testing, we hire an independent consultant who is a fully licensed and credentialed speech pathologist. This pre-test fee is credited toward the fees for the Fast ForWord program, if you decide to continue in that direction. The Learning Clinic bears the complete expense of post-testing when Fast ForWord is completed.
Assessments by others
If you already have current testing by another qualified professional that you would like to have us consider we would like to see it. Unfortunately, in most cases where we have agreed to use testing from another professional as the qualifying pre-test, we have had no follow-up with post-testing. This is very important to us, so we are now insisting that we have charge of the pre-testing and post-testing.
We have contracted with several professionals to do testing for us. For instance, we recently had a case in which a school psychologist, in the course of a school-based assessment, had done good testing of the sort that we could use as pre-testing. There was a good emphasis on the student's phonological processing abilities. That same school psychologist was available to do the post-testing for us and we paid her for that service. In other cases in which a similar arrangement can be worked out, we are happy to do so.
In other words, we may agree to use some existing testing as a pre-test, as long as it addresses the questions that relate to things we need to know, it is current, and if we can consult in advance with the professional who gave the tests. We also must be able to arrange in advance for the same professional to complete post-testing in our office.
If we do agree to use some existing pre-testing we do not make allowances in our fee. Our professional fee remains $1500. We will pay for the post-testing. The advantage to the family, if we do use existing test results, is that we are not duplicating an effort that already has been made.
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