VIII. Articulation Assessment (Emphasis on phonetic)
a. Strength-based assessment and child characteristics
A thorough assessment is required to fully describe and characterize a child’s sound system. This includes performance-based tasks that identify the child’s strengths, needs and personal characteristics. Oftentimes, parents comment that reports are esoteric and focus on what their children cannot do; consequently, clinicians should strive to objectively describe the child’s sound system in parent-friendly, yet positive terms. In particular, the clinician may highlight the fact that a child is stimulable for many sounds, demonstrated willingness to take risks or that he or she showed interest in various activities. SLPs may wish to write reports that feature parent-friendly sections in bullet points that identify strengths, describe the family or teacher concerns, characterize the sound system and offer facilitative strategies to support the child as he or she acquires sounds.