Speech and adenoids?

Children and adults with cleft lip and/or palate issues

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Speech and adenoids?

Postby jacksmom » Thu Jan 10, 2008 12:46 pm

For those of you who have been around a while, you have heard my concerns on Jackson's speech. He is almost 19 months and still doesn't say any actual words, besides Mama. Today we went for his 18 month check up and I was discussing it with the ped, along with the fact that Jackson constantly has a runny nose and sinus congestion. He seemed to think that Jackson's adenoids could be enlarged and referred us back to our ENT. Does anyone have experience with this? I would hate for Jackson to have an unnecessary surgery to remove adenoids. Also, has anyone ever heard of adenoids affecting speech? Thanks for your input!
Allison
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Griffin- 6/22/04
Jackson- 6/29/06 (Bil cleft palate)
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Postby Linda S S » Thu Jan 10, 2008 2:09 pm

How's his receptive language? Has his hearing been checked?
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Postby jacksmom » Thu Jan 10, 2008 2:44 pm

His hearing is perfect. He was recently tested and did 100% in both ears. He is very smart, as he will follow commands (like, go get your shoes), and nods his head to answer questions. He also does a lot of signing, and is in speech therapy once a week. I am not sure that we have a good speech therapist though. She thinks he is just being stubborn, as do my the grandparents and others. I am no longer satisfied with that excuse! I REALLY realized how far behind he was being around relatives his same age at Christmas! Just another step along the way! I'm doing everything I can think of to help!
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Griffin- 6/22/04
Jackson- 6/29/06 (Bil cleft palate)
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Adenoid surgery

Postby mazimono » Sun Jan 13, 2008 6:41 pm

My son is 11 years old now and he was born with Pierre Robin Syndrome in 1997. His story is on this website (Theodoros). He was hospitalized at 23 months of age with bacteremia & 105.5 fever that was quite scary at the time. The doctor (ENT) wanted to remove his adenoids or do a partial removal. He was snoring a lot at night and had to be elevated in order to sleep well. He had difficulty saying "s" in any word for several years and could not blow bubbles well either. We elected NOT to do any adenoid surgery. I spoke to another mom whose boy had a cleft lip and palate and his adenoids were removed due to night snoring and sleep apnea. She said that she was glad his adenoids were removed because he was sleeping better (2 or 3 years old) but she did notice a change in his speech. Adenoids begin to shrink at 6 or 7 years of age and if they are removed it can affect the child's speech. My son never had sleep apnea and we dealt with the snoring for a number of years by elevating his head, neck, and shoulders. He had speech therapy from kindergarten until the middle of first grade. It seems that his problem was just developmental. Your son's delayed speech may be developmental as well. My second child did not say many words until he was 3-3 1/2 years old but he understood everything said to him and communicated through signs and pointing. Boys also tend to speak later than girls. He had speech at 2 years of age and refused to communicate with his therapist at all and would not even go to her room without me. I did not care much for this therapist myself so we discontinued. He is 7 years old now and has no speech problems. I wish you the best with whatever decision you make . Please feel free to e-mail me if you have further questions--tesn4@yahoo.com.
Mary Ann Zimonopoulos
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Speach

Postby HollyBee » Sun Mar 16, 2008 1:46 pm

Hi there, Allison I think some days we have the same child! Graeme is not talking at all either, he is 16 1/2 months and he says "mom mom" but I don't think he's talking to me. He had ear tubes in on Feb 15th, the ENT said that his ears were plugged and he could not have picked a better candidate for this procedure, so I keep hoping his talking will just pick up. He is gesturing a bit but I'm not understanding, we're trying to get him to sign "more" as that's what the speach & language path wants us to do. He's also not walking yet, crawling is far too efficient.... I'm worried about all these things, the walking and talking, his palate looks awesome, that healed well. His nose too is always running and we are also contending with his stomach and his puking up all the time, wondering if it's reflux or just his gag reflex is too sensitive!

Has anyone else had a baby doing this reflux/puking thing? It's so intermittent. Some days it's twice a day and then he'll go days without puking! It's so frustrating because I don't want to put him on the medicines again if not necessary and or another procedure!!!!

As for walking he's pushing toys around the house and walking along walls an furniture... I"m pretty sure it's a confidence thing because he appears to have the mechanics.

Holly
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Postby Linda S S » Sun Mar 16, 2008 5:45 pm

Consider keeping a food log so that you can see if what he eats makes any difference with the puking. Might also be worth a rotation diet to see if perhaps he has food allergies.

Does he pull up? Cruise/stand? Consider putting some of his favorite items on a coffee table or something where he can see them and perhaps be motivated to get them.

Glad to hear you're working on signing "more", that's the first sign we taught my late-tallker (nca) nephew. With a child I work with (also nca) who has limited (and difficult to understand) speech, I taught him "more" and "stop" in sign using foot massage. He would often offer me his feet wanting me to massage them. I would start and then stop and say "tell me more", modeling the sign for him. Later we added "tell me stop".
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Postby karleysmom » Mon Mar 31, 2008 3:54 pm

Hi, I haven't been on here in a really long time. My daughter Karley doesn't really say a whole lot either. She is 16 months old and her only words are "mama", "bye" and she tries really hard to say dada but it comes out sounding like "nana". She knows what I'm saying to her most of the time and will follow simple commands. We have her back in speech once a week but I hope they will possibly bump it to two times a week. Up until about a month ago she wasn't walking, scooting around all the time. I was thinking she would never let go. She had a hearing test done at our Cleft Clinic appointment the 20th of March, she passed and has excellent hearing. She did have tubes put in her ears when they repaired her palate back in September of 2007. She still has a tiny hole(fistula) in the middle of her palate that will have to be repaired. They also want to see how her speech will sound to determine if she'll need to have her palate extended a little further than what it already is.

Other than everything I just listed above, she is a sweet, caring little girl. I have to remind myself she has been through alot since she was born. I'm sure she will pick up on everything I'm worrying about as far as developmentally when she's good and ready and in her own time. I know it's only natural for us as parents to worry though. We are all trying our best to give our kids what they need along with the extra help they need. I too was born with a cleft palate 34 years ago, when my parents didn't have all the resources and help that I'm able to give Karley. I have to tell myself I turned out fine and so will she :)

Here is a recent picture:

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-Karen 7/10/73 soft and hard cleft palate

Mom of....
Caleb 10/26/95 (NCA)
Will 4/23/97 (NCA) stepson
Karley 11/30/06 soft and hard cleft palate
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