[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.

[atouchofheaven]

YES!!! this is true for a closed palate too. i have a kid with a cleft too and we were so so lucky to get a speech therapist from birth to three who is also a cleft palate expert and on his cranio-facial team. and that is what she tells me all the time!

we are not supposed to be teaching him to talk at all because if he learns to talk without learning the proper placement in his mouth, he will have a speech impediment. so he is almost 2, not saying many words, and we aren't allowed to push for more words yet. we are supposed to encourage front of the mouth sounds during play so he will start to imitate them and learn the proper placement.

i'm so sorry no one told you this sooner. but i'm sure it is something your son can overcome. lots of people have. my best friend was born with a cleft and never got speech therapy (this was of course, years ago before they knew better) and she speaks fine, you wouldn't notice a difference other than being a little bit nasally.

i think the important thing is to find a speech therapist that has lots of experience with clefts to help you and see your son. i don't know if he is eligible but my son has a language delay anyway, so we get speech services once a week. again, with birth to three, you have to push for the amount of services you want.

great idea to warn people because it's definitely not common knowledge about these techniques. i had to relearn everything i thought about raising a child at this age. there were some habits i had to break too. thanks for getting this information out there.