Thursday, July 29, 2010

Fee, Figh, Foe, Fum....

Didn't post yesterday because I spent a good chunk of the day getting ready for, going to, and researching details about Sedona's speech evaluation. We had been referred to a speech therapist at the rehab center when she went for her 3 year well check. I felt like her speech wasn't quite where it should be, but I wasn't sure if she was just at the tail-end of the normal range or if she was actually delayed. Her understanding, ability to form sentences and vocabulary are fine, but she's actually WAY behind on the pronunciation part. This is slightly fascinating because I understand her perfectly well and didn't actually hear all the errors she's making until I sat through the evaluation and really paid attention to the sounds they were testing her on. I think it's almost like I've learned a foreign language...she's very consistent in the sounds she uses, so I have no problem with it, but they're the wrong sounds, so people who aren't around her a lot will have a harder time understanding her. It's also slightly annoying because I've been asking about her speech (to every doctor she's seen, at well and sick visits) for at least 18 months now and just kept getting brushed off even though she never spoke for them.

She cooperated with the speech therapist wonderfully and even asked to go back today, so I think that's a good sign. Out of 61 sounds they tested on her, there are 38 she can't say correctly, so she's got a bit of work ahead of her. We'll be starting with therapy twice a week and we'll scale back if she picks it up quickly. We're starting with the "f", "v" and "th" sounds and she's already figured out how to make the "f" and "v" sounds consistently, but it's going to take her more work to put them in a word (she wants to use a "p" sound instead of "f" and a "b" sound instead of "v").

I'm glad we got in for an evaluation now instead of when she's older and I'm glad she's able to easily communicate with Josh, Sierra and I (usually one of the three of us understands her and can translate if there's confusion). Also glad she seems eager to work on it. Sierra has told her this will help her talk better so everyone understands her easier and she actually seems to like the idea and to want to get started making progress. It's gonna take a lot of work to get her back up to average for her age, but there are sooooo many worse things in life than pronunciation problems, I'm glad it's an easy, if time-intensive, fix.

2 comments:

Marti Kubena said...

Always good when a parent acknowledges that there is a problem. Bryan has a cousin who's mom refused to admit that her daughter couldn't hear. She didn't get any help until she was in the public school system. His cousin still has issues with speech that could have been resolved when she was a toddler and she's got quite a bit of resentment towards her mother for not getting her the help she needed at an early age. Her hearing loss is neurological.

Did they do a hearing test on her as well? Braden hardly spoke at all until he was three. Partly because he was a boy, mostly because he couldn't hear from the infections. But he hasn't had much trouble with pronunciation. With him being our first experience, we are still amazed at how well Anabelle speaks. He was so frustrating, and now we don't even have to try with her.
I'm sure Sedona will do great with the lessons and that's wonderful that she likes them!

The Hills said...

She's never had a hearing test, but there's no indication at all that she can't hear well and she didn't have ear infections. (Ironically, Sierra, who did have recurrent ear infections, always passed her hearing tests with flying colors even when fluid was there--that's why we didn't do tubes with her--and she was a "late talker", but didn't have any true delays). Part of the evaluation was a pretty lengthy discussion about any labor and delivery issues or infant illness that may have caused hearing loss or oral aversions or limited range of motion or anything like that.

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