[specialk4b]

Micah had his first evaluation by the speech pathologist. We went to visit him in his little speech lab. He walks in and says to Micah, "Hi, I'm Jay." I immediately love this guy! Micah? Not so much. He breaks into full meltdown mode. LOL

During the evaluation, Dr. Riski tells us what smart parents we are and how much we're teaching him. "Are you sure you're rookies?" he asks. We're beaming with pride at our success. Then he gives us the punchline. "You've got the perfect recipe for Cleft Speak. A smart child and two motivated parents." A backhanded compliment to be sure.

He told us that Micah is completely unable to make many of the sounds in the English language. But because he's a smart child he will figure out a way to accommodate and say the sound anyways. We have been so excited as Micah added new sounds. But with each new sounds comes a new bad habit that will have to be unlearned when his palate is closed. Who knew???

The doctore gave us some exercises to help Micah to learn better speech habits for the future. He is able to make many sounds correctly by plugging his nose so air comes out his mouth. We are practicing b's, p's and s's this way. He is also learning to blow on a whistle with his nose plugged. Yesterday we blew bubbles, again by plugging his nose.

There are some sounds that he is unable to make, even with his nose plugged. K's and g's are a couple. We're to avoid teaching him new words with these sounds. What do you tell a boy who loves Mickey Mouse? Another bad habit is saying "oh oh." Now Mama and Baba are trying to break that habit too.

I wish I'd know that going in. I'm not sure how much it would have changed what we did, but it would have been nice to know. Many children with open palates don't talk a lot so it's not an issue. But Micah talks non-stop. I'm posting here so others who find themselves with a highly verbal child with an open palate can be prepared.

[pgruodis]

Hi, I'm a Speech & Language Pathologist as well.
Micah has been home just over a month? How much longer before he (she?) has his cleft repaired? How intensively were you already working on speech with your child?
If your child is very young, and will have surgery soon, you may want to consider not really working on anything.

[specialk4b]

He's been home about two months and is scheduled to have the palate closed next month. He's 2-1/2. We've been playing with him plugging his nose and blowing. He keeps learning new words, in spite of us not really working on anything.

[PiperH]

Thanks SpecialK,

Your post was very informative to us. It must be hard not to get excited that he is speaking. We are facing the same thing with our soon-to-be son, and how weird is it to wish him not to talk? Kids can adjust so well, though, I'm sure he'll be fine adjusting to the "right" way to talk once his palate is repaired. Keep us all posted on how it goes.

Violet

[pgruodis]

Hi Violet, I don't believe talking (or not talking) is the issue. What you don't want him to do is practice particular sounds.
Imagine you have a pebble in your boot and can't remove it right away...you still need to walk, so you will compensate for the problem by applying pressure to a different side/front/back of your foot to avoid the pebble. Since you know you can eventually remove the pebble, you wouldn't want to start practicing walking in a way to avoid the pebble because you'll habitualize that pattern.
This is why I asked if the original poster was working on speech a lot, since it would take a good amount of direct practice to start compensating for sounds in a new language enough to do it consistently.
As I mentioned earlier, I wouldn't work on any speech until after surgery if a child is very young & will have surgery soon. Of course you can still work on Language/Communication without the remediation of specific sounds.

[specialk4b]

What do you mean by not working on speech? We are obviously talking to him every day and he's picking up more words. He points at things and wants to know what it is. We're staying at the general, like all birds are birds, not calling them robins, cardinals, bluejays, etc. But he likes to have books read to him and is picking up words from that, too.

[pgruodis]

Originally Posted by specialk4b

What do you mean by not working on speech? We are obviously talking to him every day and he's picking up more words. He points at things and wants to know what it is. We're staying at the general, like all birds are birds, not calling them robins, cardinals, bluejays, etc. But he likes to have books read to him and is picking up words from that, too.

That is what we would consider "Language"...and as I mentioned in the previous post, is good to work on.

"Speech" is the production of sounds. I would not recommend working on targeting specific sounds ie: the /b/ in ball. Activities like blowing (while holding the nose) are more speech related as well.

[specialk4b]

Thanks - I didn't understand the distinction. So we'll keep introducing words, but not worry as much about sounds until his cleft is repaired. That will work well how things are going too.

[mdaisyq]

The distinction between language and speech is so important, and yet many people confuse the two. Our son, repaired CL/CP, had no language OR speech skills. The special ed in our local, school system had never dealt with a child with no comprehension of verbal language as a means of communication - they only thought in terms of speech disability and when he was finally given an IEP (after a 6 month battle) they only thought to address his speech issues, ie. articulation.

It has been so hard to explain to people what a language disability is like vs a speech disability.

Thank you for the succinct definition.

By the way, we were able to find an awesome private speech therapist. After a year of twice a week speech therapy, our son is now only a year behind in receptive language and is now ready to work on speech.