This is my first time posting too -- I have spent all day
trying to find a sight like this where parents can talk to one
another about their experiences raising a cleft child! I am SO
happy to be here!
My son is 2 and a half years old, bilateral cleft lip and
palate (a mild Opitz-Frietz syndrome too). His team considers his
speech impediment profound. He can say all of the vowels, but
only a couple of consonants (m, n, r). He is exceptionally
bright, however, and has taught himself "tricks"
arounds saying the letters he can't say. Because of this, his
team decided to do a pharyngeal flap surgery early (I got the
feeling that the earliest they usually do this is at age 3, but
he's only 2 and a half). They did it two weeks ago. There is
still swelling, making any speech skewed, but I am beginning to
hear letters that I did not hear before (b, p, k in particular).
I, too, am very worried about my son's speech development. He
is so intelligent and has so much to say, but gets so frustrated
because we cannot understand a lot of what he is trying to share.
I am hoping that once all the swelling, etc., has gone away,
there will be a definite improvement in his speech. I'll keep you
posted. In the meantime, feel free to contact me at
alexander.s.c@worldnet.att.net if you have further questions.
Sincerely,
Alex