[china2396]

My wife and i adopted our son from china 8 monthsago.he is now 3 years 8months.He was born with a cleft lip and palate and also possible hearing loss.Initial reports said he spoke very little chinese and only the people around him alot understood him.We took him to the children s hospital of philadelphia for an evaluation.They said he was delayed about three to six months cognitivly and motor.He had several hearing tests but couldnt determine what he was hearing or not do to his lack of language.The hospital put tubes in his ears and finally about 2 months ago it was determined he had permanent moderate hearing loss.he was fitted for hearing aids in both ears about a month and a half ago.I should have said he has been in speech therapy since january.he also goes to our school district special dept for speech therapist.he goes to therapy about 3 days aweek.Our problem that we see is he has severe articulation,he does have avocabulary of 150-200 words.my wife and i understand him pretty well about 80 percent of the time but if you were to put him in front of another person you wouldnt be able to understand him.he doeas talk in sentences and basically understands us.one of the pathologists thinks he just needs time to learn and grasp the language the other pathologist thinks he might be have apraxia.he just had his 6 month revaluation and has caught up both cognitvly and motor for his age.He also toe walks since day one.the doctors suggested to due an mri to test for possible nerologiacal problems with his speech.Some people i have spoken to feel it takes about a kid his age around a year to get caught up language wise with no special needs.I should also add his cleft and palate were repaired in china cleft lip at 15months and palate at 20 months.For the first 6 months he was in orphanage and then the next to and half years he was in foster care.He adusted to my wife and i rather quickly.were just concerned with his speech.He will to start preschool in sept.We feel it might help his language being around other kids.He wont start kindergarten till 2009 so we feel that is to his benefit.our doctor did suggest we also teach him sign language to compliment him learning the language.Has anyone experienced something like this?Any help would be appreciated.