Re: UPDATE _ Eval results - help me understand!

[Guest guest]

most moms here will tell you that kids with apraxia or a delay score high in

receptive and low in expressive. It shows they understand but cannot express

themselves the way a child the same age would be able to.

I found this by Googling Bayley Scale.

The Bayley Scale of Infant Development has long been considered an excellent

tool for evaluating the development of young children. This is a standard way of

assessing the cognitive and motor development for children from 1 month old

until they are 3 years 6 months.

What Does This Test Measure?

Unfortunately this test does not measure future ability. So, professionals using

this test will not be able to tell you whether or not you have a future creative

genius in your arms. But they will be able to let you know how your child is

doing compared to the norm at the time of the test.

The revised version, known as BSID II, has expanded in content on the earlier

scale and is said to have enhanced clinical validity. In other words, it is

better than before at doing what it is supposed to do. It has been updated in

order to better reflect current norms and helps clinicians with diagnostic

assessment at an early stage so that if intervention is needed it can be done at

the earliest possible time.

How Accurate Are The Bayley Scale of Infant Development?

The Bayley Scale of Infant Development is based upon research into 1,700

children tested at intervals of either one or three months. From one month old

until they reached 42 months.

One of the big advantages of this test is that it allows for such variables as

age, sex, region, race and ethnicity, and parental education - at least to some

extent.

Why I say it 'to some extent' is that although I am a professional therapist, I

am also a mother. I know that one of my children often failed to co-operate with

any such test, not from any lack of ability, mental or otherwise. Fortunately

the doctor concerned was lenient to him and would watch him playing happily and

chatting away before he reached his office.

I have since realized what the problem was - white coats. He received a lot of

medical attention and was poked and prodded quite a lot in his early days -

always by people wearing white coats. My youngest sister had behaved in exactly

the same way and for the same reason but I somehow forgot about that.

How Does The Bayley Scale Work?

Bayley Scale of infant development measure many different things, but these are

divided principally into three areas:

behavior

mental and

motor scale i.e. how a baby behaves, thinks, and moves.

Behavior Scale is used in conjunction with the other two scale and measures the

child's attention span and arousal, his engagement with what is going on and so

on.

Mental Scale will test your child's sensory and perceptual skills. It looks at

such things as how they discriminate between objects and their response to

various things, their memory, learning, and problem solving abilities as well as

language skills from early noises made onwards. Even how a baby can think about

abstract things and how they have acquired early mathematical concepts can be

measured.

Motor Scale assesses skills of body control, whether large muscle coordination

or the finer skills of the hands and fingers, how practical a baby is and how he

interacts physically with the world around him.

The Bayley Scale of infant development also takes account of special

circumstances, for instance whether a child was premature, has Down's syndrome

or has a mother who was taking drugs during pregnancy.

The Best Practical Approach For Your Child

Taking your child along for any kind of test can be a little stressful,

especially if you suspect that there is a problem of some kind. All the

technical jargon can seem very daunting and frightening.

Here I have tried to use language that is easier to understand by parents. But

if there is something that you don't understand or which is worrying you please

ask someone and they will, I am sure, be able to tell you why they are doing a

particular activity with your child and how he is doing.

Some professionals use other, less daunting tests as mentioned here to

accomplish the same results. If you're unsure ask. And don't be distracted if

you have real concerns. Just because you haven't got the right set of letters

after your name doesn't make your observations invalid.

In fact, my own experience shows that most parents have a much better

" intuition " about their child than they appreciate themselves.

I once saw a specialist write 'Mother says!!!' when I said my daughter was

walking and talking, because she hadn't done so in her office and wasn't

interested in looking at the set of cards offered. As we were going out I put my

daughter down. She walked out of the office and down the corridor before turning

round and saying clearly 'Goodbye.' The doctor came after us apologetically.

There are plenty of professionals out there who will give you sensible practical

advice. One option many parents prefer to follow nowadays is to first understand

the advice offered in many high quality reference books.

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>> The SLP who tested his speech/communication gave him a rating of 11 on his

receptive and a 3 on his expressive, saying that the 11 was good and the 3,

well, not so much. I think she said she used they " Bayley " scale... and I can't

find any info on this online. Is anyone familiar with this method? How " good " is

an 11 for receptive and how " bad " is a 3 for expressive?

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