Early Diagnosis

At Tiegerman, we believe that children with disabilities must be identified as early as possible in order to address learning problems before they become instructional deficits. Early identification and treatment can make a significant difference in the lives of children with special needs.

In partnership with parents and local school districts, our therapeutic specialists foster an environment in which a student can reveal his or her strengths, needs, and unique learning style. Tiegerman's Therapeutic Learning Center provides a comprehensive range of evaluative, educational and clinical services for infants, toddlers, and school-age children. 

In 1980, the American Speech-Language Hearing Association proposed a standardized definition for the term - language disorders. This provided the opportunity for speech-language pathologists and other professionals to formalize the identification and treatment of children with language disorders throughout the United States.

Evaluations of a child birth through age 5 require information gathering and a series of individually administered assessments and behavioral observations. There are certain required evaluations for Early intervention and a different set of evaluations for CPSE. These evaluations provide information about the child's development according to functional areas such as language, motor, mental, social-emotional and behavioral skills.

• Language & Communication Evaluation can measure the child's understanding of language and expression of language, pragmatic language skills, speech production (including articulation, phonology, phonation/voice, and fluency) oral motor development and feeding/swallowing skills.
• A Psychological Evaluation is a process by which a certified school psychologist or licensed psychologist uses, to the extent deemed necessary for purposes of educational planning, a variety of psychological and education techniques and examinations to study and describe a student's developmental, learning, behavioral and other personality characteristics.
•  An Educational Evaluation utilizes a variety of individually administered assessments, scales and parent questionnaires to determine the student's school related knowledge, and readiness.
• An Occupational Therapy Evaluation can measure the presence and mastery of developmental fine motor skills needed to perform  functional activities and the component skills such as visual-perceptual-motor, sensory processing and sensory integration, manual dexterity, eye hand coordination using a variety of formal and informal assessment strategies.
• A Physical Therapy Evaluation can measure the presence and mastery of developmental motor skills such as range of motion; muscle performance; neuromotor development and sensory integration; reflex integrity; joint integrity and mobility gait; and locomotion and balance. 
• An Audiological evaluation provides an assessment of the child's current hearing status.
• A Social History Report includes interpersonal, familial and environmental factors, which influence a child's general adaptation to the learning environment.
• A Medical is a physical examination. This may include a report from the child's pediatrician or any other specialists who have recently  examined the child. Early Intervention Core Evaluations consist of an evaluation of the child's present levels of functioning in the five development domains (cognitive, physical, communication, social/emotional and adaptive), and a review of pertinent records related  to the child's current health status and medical history, and a parental interview about the child's development progress.