Re: How many Hours of Therapy

[Guest guest]

/,

Please be careful how you look at these percentages. The average range for

percentile scores is **16 to 84**. A percentile of 20 is within the average

range. The " aim " is not to get to the 50th or any other particular percentile

on a standardized test, but to bring skills into the average range.

Also, this writer's description of how changes in percentile rank relate to

progress is not correct. A child who scores at the 20th percentile on a

standardized test, then one year later scores again at the 20th, has not

plateaued or failed to make progress. He or she has made one year's worth of

progress in one year, exactly what would be expected.

A child who scores at the 20th percentile on a standardized test, then one year

later scores at the 25th percentile, has actually gained ground compared to

peers. He or she has made more than one year of progress in one year, and so

the percentile ranking has gone up.

It is when children's skills are below the 16th percentile that we need to help

them gain ground in this way.

BTW, decisions about therapy, goals and progress should take into account more

than test scores. Sometimes percentile ranks can stay the same or go down yet

the child is still gaining in intelligibility, sound repertoire, variety of

syllable shapes used, etc. That is progress too! I find this can happen in

particular in young children with apraxia. The course of therapy is longer

term. The

scores do eventually begin to go the other way. In my experience, most apraxic

children without cognitive impairments can get into that average range.

> In particular, if she looks at his percentile scores on

> similar testing, comparing the scores over time, she can chart whether

> he's getting his needs met adequately. For example, if he was in the

> lower 20% when he was 3, and is now up to 40%, he's doing pretty well.

> But if he was in the lower 20% at 3 and has now increased to only the

> lower 25%, I would push for more speech therapy, knowing that he'll be

> starting kindergarten soon enough (and we want our kids to be talking

> pretty well by then, if possible). The aim is to get to a solid 50%

> range, where a child is at least " average " at speech/language,

> compared to peers.

Deborah L. Van den Beemt, MS CCC-SLP

in NH/VT

[Guest guest]

Hi Deborah,

I appreciate your professional feedback! As always we are pleased to

have therapist and all our professionals posting to the list on your

valued time to help the parents. Professionals your expertise means a

great deal to us parents and is a great comfort in knowing you are

there for us when needed. Deborah it's wonderful to hear from you!

Best,

Mustafa