Communication Checkup

It is an online screening tool created for parents and legal guardians living in Leeds, Grenville and Lanark counties, Ontario.

Screen your child’s speech and language milestones and their global development in about 10-15 minutes. If your child needs support for their development, you can start a referral online from our tool.

The tool is available for the following ages:

• 6 months
• 9 months
• 12 months (1 year)
• 18 months
• 24 months (2 years)
• 30 months
• 36 months (3 years)
• 42 months
• 48 months (4 years)

If your child is between the ages listed, you will get the screening questions for the “younger age”. We encourage you to come back when your child meets the next screening age.

We will adjust the screening questions to your child’s developmental age until their second birthday.

Talk with their teacher, principal and their Primary Health Care Provider (doctor, nurse). Tell them about your concerns and they will direct you to a service to help your child.

The tool will ask you questions about your child’s global development.

Speech and Language:

• Receptive language: how they hear and understand information
• Expressive language: how they express themselves with words and gestures. This also includes the quality of the sounds they make.

Social Communication and Behaviour: how they communicate and interact with others

Fine Motor Skills: smaller movements that occur in the wrists, hands, fingers, feet and toes

Gross Motor Skills: movement and coordination of the arms, legs, and other large body parts

Red Flags: signs that your child may be developing differently

The tool was created for parents and legal guardians living in Leeds, Grenville and Lanark counties, Ontario. 

Primary Health Care Providers (doctors, nurses), Educators and Child Care Providers can also use the tool to:

• Help a family complete a screening and start the referral for services for their child. 
• Screen a child.
• Generate results about a child’s development to discuss with the parent or legal guardian, and to inform program planning. 

• Parents or legal guardians
• Primary Health Care Providers (doctors, nurses) and community educators (if consent was given by the family)

You can give your child the best start in life by identifying a challenge early. Young brains learn quickly. Give your child the support they need to build their communication skills.

After completing your child’s screening, you will:

• Get instant results and see how your child is developing. Make sure to save, print or email yourself the results. Share them with your child’s Primary Health Care Provider or a trusted educator for support.
• Know which skills your child needs help with. 
• Have specific next steps to take to support your child’s development. 
• Be directed to the most appropriate service for your child’s development. 
• OPTIONAL: Complete your child’s referral to Language Express online. This sends a copy their screening results to Language Express.

Timed session (30 minutes)

We have added a timer (30 minutes) to help protect your privacy in case you need to step away from the screening. If the program closes, your information will be lost. Don’t worry, we will let you know when you get close to timing out. You can add time to the clock as many times as you need to. 

Completing the screening

1. We ask you a few questions about your child so that we can generate the correct questions for your child’s age. Make sure to let us know if your child was born prematurely (before 37 weeks of pregnancy). This helps us adjust the questions to your child’s corrected age.
2. Answer each question with a “Yes” or “No”. If you are not sure how to answer a question, think about how your child is doing the skill today. Have you seen this skill more than once?
3. Once you receive your results, make sure to save, print or email yourself a copy.
4. Any expected skills that your child is not currently doing are highlighted. Discuss these areas of concern with your child’s Primary Health Care Provider or a trusted educator in your community.

Starting your referral for services

1. Online referral (recommended): Provide your personal information to complete your child’s referral to Language Express if this is what your results recommend. Your results and your intake forms will be sent to Language Express.
2. Telephone referral: If you are not comfortable completing your referral online, follow the instructions listed in your results/next steps. You can always call the Language Express office at 1-888-503-8885 to ask questions or make a referral by phone. 

No. Completing the Language Express Communication Checkup is optional.

Call our Intake Office to refer your child to our program: 1-888-503-8885.

Your privacy is important to us. Privacy laws (PHIPA) are in place to protect your Personal Health Information (PHI).

When you complete your referral online, your information will go to the Language Express Intake Office and will be shared with Language Express’ partner agencies. These agencies are directly responsible for providing you with the services you are requesting.

We will never share your information with anyone outside of Language Express’ partner agencies without your consent or unless we are required to by law.

Your results and next steps are calculated using the answers you provide.

1A – Your child is meeting their speech and language milestones. Come back at your child’s next milestone to complete a new screening to make sure your child is on track.

1B – Your child is meeting their speech and language milestones. We recommend that you set up an appointment with your child’s Primary Health Care Provider (doctor, nurse) to discuss the areas of development highlighted on your screening results.

2A – Your child needs a speech and language assessment. To support your child, a referral to the Language Express Preschool Speech and Language Program is recommended.

2B – Your child needs a speech and language assessment. To support your child, a referral to the Language Express Preschool Speech and Language Program is recommended.

We also recommend that you set up an appointment with your child’s Primary Health Care Provider (doctor, nurse) to discuss the areas of development highlighted on your screening results.

3 – Your child may need a developmental assessment. We recommend that you set up an appointment with your child’s Primary Health Care Provider (doctor, nurse) to discuss the areas of development highlighted on your screening results.

Once your Intake Forms are received by us, your child’s name is placed on the waiting list for a speech and language assessment. There will be a waiting period for this service. Check our website for tips and strategies to support your child while you wait.

The results are calculated based on how you answer the screening questions. The milestones listed for each age are within the normal range for child development in Ontario.

We recommend that you talk to your child’s Primary Health Care Provider (doctor, nurse) about their development.