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Early Intervention Speech Therapy

Interviewing Parents: Part 3

Published November 7, 2008 8:46 AM by Stephanie Bruno
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Thank you for your comments and input over the last week. Please continue to communicate issues, questions and topic requests that you may be dealing with in your part of the world!

For those of you who may have missed the last post, we had a speech therapist write in from South Africa working with children with HIV/AIDS. It is exciting to know that our blog is reaching across continents. There is so much we can learn from each other!

Now, to our third and final post regarding interviewing parents. Below is a continuation of the questions therapists can use when interviewing parents/ daycares:

Sensory/Oral Motor Feeding

  • Does the child have sensory needs?
  • How is their oral motor control? Do they have oral sensitivities? Like/dislike brushing teeth?
  • Does the child appear to have low tone? (this question can be answered more through your own observation)
  • Do you see excessive drooling?
  • How is feeding going? Is the child a picky eater?  Are there any texture issues and/or food aversions? What are their favorite foods? What does their diet consist of?
  • Does the child have reflux or other gastrointestinal issues?
  • Does the child have food allergies?
  • Does the child have failure to thrive?

Play and Social Skills / Overall Development

  • How is the child's eye contact? How is their attention span?
  • How are their play skills and social skills? Is the child easy to engage? Can they take-turns with others and share toys?
  • What are the child's opportunities to socialize? Are they exposed to other children consistently?
  • When did the child meet other developmental milestones? Were they delayed in other areas? How is the child's overall physical development?
  • How is the child doing cognitively? Is there a gap between receptive and expressive language OR do they coincide?
  • Is the child able to imitate movements and verbal sounds? Does the child strain to make sounds? How are their motor-planning skills overall?

I hope that you have found these questions helpful! I'm sure there are other inquiries that you may think of and already use when assessing, so please feel free to share your ideas!

Next week, tune in for our first blog interview with Mary Pat Winterhalter, an Early Intervention Administrator here in Pennsylvania. She will talk about the challenges and the benefits of the program she oversees, as well as the role therapists play with the children at her facility.

posted by Stephanie Bruno
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2 comments
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David - Great suggestions! I completely agree with your comments. Thank you for adding to my post and sharing helpful information for our readers. It is sometimes difficult for me to think of ALL the important points and issues that need to be addressed which is why it is so helpful to have therapists like you write in and share your own personal experiences. THANK YOU!
stephanie, blog author November 12, 2008 9:11 PM

Nice set of questions.  Just two comments.  Your series of questions about feeding is right on.  Just asking the parents how feeding is going is usually not enough.  I have been caught by that several times.  It is important to be more specific, asking if the child is a picky eater, and then following up with questions about what specific foods he/she refuses to eat.  You often will see a consistency in texture, intensity of flavor, temperature, or other variables.

Second point is about gastric reflux.  In many cases this is not diagnosed -- the SLP may be the first one to recognize it, even sometimes in very severe cases.  I recently had a child who had a chronic runny nose, otitis, and was generally sickly.  We suggested to the mother that she ask the doctor about reflux.  After a variety of interventions, she finally had a fundal plication.  That cleared up the whole system, and she's doing much better all around.

Suggested questions about reflux include:  Does your child have bad breath, particularly in the morning?  Do you see spit-up on his/her pillow in the morning?  Does s/he have excessive, smelly drooling?  Does s/he have a lot of runny noses or ear infections?  Does s/he seem to have a lot of upset stomachs?
David Harper, , SLP Birth-to-Three home-based November 11, 2008 8:47 PM
Superior WI

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