Chronological Age Calculator
We’ve all been there! You do the long and difficult work of scheduling a speech language evaluation, finishing your testing, and sitting down to write your report. Then comes the need for one extremely important piece of information: calculating chronological age for the child! This weird, two numeral piece of data can mean the difference between correctly or incorrectly diagnosing a child even after all your other hard work! That’s why we put together this free chronological age calculator that is fast and easy to use.
Chronological Age Calculator In Months and Years
Just the chronological age calculator please! No frills or unneeded information!
With the many students and clinical fellows that I have supervised, I have to say that getting this number wrong is one of the most common errors I need to correct. Even me as a seasoned vet, I have had to triple check that it is accurate.
The problem is that many of the test publisher’s calculators like the Pearson chronological age calculator move and I lose the bookmark, are broken, or have a ton of other unneeded information. I just need a single number that I can trust. In response to the discontinuation of the chronological age calculator from Pearson, we built this free chronological age calculator as a reliable alternative. And why will it be updated and always easy to find? Because we use this chronological age calculator for testing every week!
How to Calculate Chronological Age
If you are new to the field or like to check your work, here is how to calculate chronological age. It requires no special math skills but is a little bit quirky because you are adding everything backwards.
- Start with today’s date written backwards: (year month day) 2024 12 25
- Underneath write the child’s birthday written backwards (year month day) 2015 06 15
- Subtract the day (10)
- Subtract the month (6)
- Subtract the year (9)
- Discard the day
- Put a semi-colon between the year and the month (9;6)
How to Calculate Chronological Age with Larger Numbers in the Birth Date
Any professional who has made an error calculating chronological age is probably breaking a sweat right now if it resulted in a misdiagnosis that hopefully you or your supervisor caught. Chances are it was related to math errors when the birth day or month was larger than the testing day or month. Here is how to calculate chronological age properly in this case:
- Start with today’s date written backwards: (year month day) 2024 02 05
- Underneath write the child’s birthday written backwards (year month day) 2015 06 15
- Subtract the day BY ADDING 3O TO TODAY’S DATE, BORROWING 1 FROM THE MONTH. In this example we are now taking 35-15=20 and the month (February) becomes 1.
- Subtract the month (now 1) BY BORROWING 12 (MONTHS) FROM THE YEAR. In this case we are now taking 13-6=7
- Subtract the year REMEMBERING THAT YOU TOOK ONE AWAY. In this case, you are now subtracting 2015 from 2023 or 8.
- Discard the day
- Put a semi-colon between the year and the month (8;7)
Not hard but not easy when you have been testing for 2 hours and are a bit bleary-eyed. Also, now you know why we went through the effort to make our own.
Why is Calculating Chronological Age Important in Speech Therapy Evaluations?
Calculating chronological age is a crucial factor in speech therapy evaluations as it provides a baseline for assessing a person's speech and language development. Speech-language pathologists calculate chronological age to compare an individual's communication skills with expected milestones for their age group. This information is essential for tailoring therapy plans to meet specific needs and tracking progress over time.
Calculating chronological age allows professionals like speech-language pathologists to identify potential speech and language disorders, developmental delays, or other communication challenges. It forms the basis for creating personalized interventions that address individual strengths and weaknesses, ultimately improving the effectiveness of speech therapy.
Why Don’t Test Developers Have a Free Chronological Age Calculator?
We’re not really sure how to answer this. They definitely have one because they would have needed it to develop their tests. At times they make it available. But then, as websites get redesigned or things don’t get updated, they tend to go away. We relied on Pearson’s chronological age calculator for years as they are the publishers of many evaluations. However, at the time of writing they simply abandoned it and said:
Instead, they point to a world clock that is crammed with ads and a ton of unneeded information. Plus, they give instructions for how to modify it for special education purposes. We can’t fault them. We know what it takes to keep a website updated and they certainly have other priorities. So bookmark this chronological age calculator for testing your little ones so you get your numbers and diagnosis straight!
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