Patient Information
Preparing for your
Visit
After you’ve scheduled an appointment for yourself or your child, please provide any helpful documents or test results, which may include:
​
-
Hearing tests
-
Individualized Education Programs (IEP), current or past
-
Individualized Family Service Plans (IFSP)
-
Neuropsychological or educational testing
-
Previous speech and language evaluations or reports
-
Developmental evaluations
-
Any additional relevant information
Referral & Insurance Coverage
If you are having concerns about your child’s language, speech, fine motor, or visual perception skills, you may self-refer for an evaluation or screening. Your insurance company may require that you get a referral from your child’s primary care physician or pediatrician and we can assist you in this process.You or your child’s evaluation insurance coverage will depend on your insurance plan’s coverage and benefits. You may wish to consult with your child’s doctor and your insurance company to determine if anything is needed prior to your evaluation.
Day of
Appointment
Please arrive 10 mins prior to your appointment time to check in. Please also complete the New Patient Intake Application prior to your first visit to ensure that our time together can be effectively spent in the evaluation. We recommend that you allow for 60 minutes during your evaluation.
Learn more about Screening, Evaluations, and Treatment.
If you are expecting to arrive late for your appointment, please call to let us know so we can determine if your appointment will need to be rescheduled.
If you need to cancel or reschedule your child’s appointment for any reason, call us as soon as possible at 406-219-2114. We require 24 hours notice for cancellations.
​
It is preferable that siblings do not accompany your child to the appointment. We do our best to limit distractions so your child can focus on the evaluation of his/her skills.
What to
Expect
-
Speech and language evaluation
A speech and language evaluation consists of a comprehensive assessment of your child’s ability to understand language, use language to communicate, articulate, and use his/her voice to speak clearly and fluently. Please allow 60 minutes for the evaluation to be completed. At the end of the evaluation, you will be given information regarding your child’s speech and language abilities, appropriate medical, educational and community resources to meet your child’s needs, ideas for home practice, and recommendations and goals for therapy, if necessary.
-
Occupational Therapy evaluation
​​​​​​​
​
We offer no-obligation screening which can help determine if you or your child can benefit from our therapy services. If your child’s teacher or childcare provider has mentioned concerns, this is a great way for you to get a better understanding of any potential problems your child may be facing. You also might have already inquired with your primary care physician or doctor about speech and language therapy and/or occupational therapy for yourself or your child. If your doctor didn’t recommend that you see a certified speech language pathologist or occupational therapist, but you still feel that it may be needed, our screenings can help. If our screening indicates a need, we can write a recommendation that you can take back to your doctor.
Before your visit, you’ll provide us with a description of your concerns for us to review. Screenings take about 15 minutes, where we look for warning signs that indicate a more in-depth speech and language or occupational evaluation is needed. Please contact us today to ask if a screening is right for you or your child.
​
​
Once you’ve received a prescription from your doctor for treatment, Foundation Speech Therapy can schedule a comprehensive evaluation/treatment for you or your child. Our evaluations last approximately one hour, but we ask that you prepare to be with us between 60-90 minutes. Before you arrive, please complete the New Client Intake Application. We’ll review the case history, and during you/your child’s visit, we will get further insights through observation, testing, and the consultation interview.
After your evaluation visit, we will produce a report that will be written based on score testing, review of notes and observation details. Our report includes a summary of the client’s conditions, goals that help with the targeted area(s) of concern, and the plan for treatment.
​
​
During the first treatment session, we’ll review your evaluation to help you understand how therapy sessions will be handled. Therapy interventions are individualized to meet each clients needs. The evaluation results drive the goals that are targeted during therapy sessions. A variety of factors are used to determine the length of the therapy session and the goals that are being addressed. Your therapist will go over this with you. Home therapy programs are determined on an individualized basis but are encouraged to help with mastery and generalization of learned skills.
Parents or caregivers are always welcome in the therapy sessions. We do ask that you not bring cell phones or other children into the session to help minimize distractions during therapy.