Developmental Evaluations

A qualified therapist or other professional must perform a thorough evaluation before your child can be assisted in overcoming any developmental delay that may possibly exist. Our evaluations are play-based and family-centered, because toddlers and infants learn best through play with their loved ones. This step is necessary both to ensure that our team is able to identify specific areas of your child's delay and make recommendations for appropriate services to address those needs.

At first glance it's easy to confuse our play-based evaluation style as simply play. Your child will play, but he or she will also learn, and so will we. By interacting with children and observing them during natural playtime, we're able to detect functional skills and precise levels of development achieved in the functional domains behind those skills. This is the best way to find child-specific social, cognitive, and/or environmental factors tied to the occurrence (and non-occurrence) of specific behaviors.

Before we can help your child correct or improve a behavior, we must discover the reason(s) why that behavior is being exhibited. In order to do that, we play. Together.

DEVELOPMENTAL ASSESSMENTS

Once an evaluation has been performed, we carefully consider the results. Children are all unique, even those who share the same developmental delay. Those with delays also have strengths and weaknesses, just like any other child does. Using our evaluation and input from the child's family, our therapists and professionals identify each child's developmental delay(s), strengths, and weaknesses.

It's an in-depth process that involves the child's entire family, and the result is an accurate developmental assessment that allows us to build an early intervention program. Our programs, like our evaluations and assessments, involve the child's family and exist to guide the child to reaching the fullest potential possible. The assessment process is also an ongoing one. We don't just assess once – we continually monitor your child's progress and difficulties to make sure the most appropriate services are always being provided. With your help, Sunny Days keeps your child's development moving forward.