ever since e started talking, he has had some issues annunciating certain words. at first, it was cute, “I just learned to talk” stuff but as he has gotten older, he hasn’t really grown out of it. some of the sounds are typically more difficult to learn and should come in time {r’s, l’s, etc} but some of them just didn’t sound right. I couldn’t really find the right words to describe it but it just wasn’t right. bri & I had talked about it and wondered whether it was truly an issue or just something he would outgrow but after having a nagging feeling for awhile about it, we asked our pediatrician. he told us that as long as he could be understood, it wasn’t an issue.
the problem was that it was the understanding part of it that was bothering us. nor was it really the r’s and l’s. it was more this other “thing” we couldn’t quite put our finger on. eventually, I called our school district to have him evaluated for ppcd. this evaluation involves everything from motor skills to speech and everything in between. we figured if they didn’t see an issue, then we were probably in the clear.
two-ish weeks ago, I took him to be evaluated. he did beyond well in every skill from the use of words to motor skills to cognitive development-except for annunciation. they did notice his issues with r’s, l’s, etc but weren’t terrible concerned by that. what they were concerned with was that he was very “nasally” when saying “sh” and “ch” sounds. YES!!! that was exactly what we were noticing but having a hard time verbalizing. we were glad to finally have a way to describe it that sort of made sense. during the testing, they also noticed some fluid in his left ear that caused him to not do too great on a hearing test. they recommended him for further testing with the speech pathologist at our home elementary school but also wanted us to check in with our ent to see if there were anatomical reasons behind this nasal speaking.
fast forward to last thursday. we met with the speech pathologist at mossman elementary to have e evaluated and after 20 minutes, she agreed with the initial assessment and said she will probably qualify him for ppcd therapy. she was also curious what our ent said about the nasally speech.
friday, we headed to our ent to have him take a look at mr e. after quickly checking him out, dr ashe decided to get a closer look. this involved numbing the inside of e’s nose and then sending a small camera up his nose and down into his throat. this momma & daddy were freaking out a little bit!! after having a cotton ball shoved up his nose twice with numbing stuff, he let dr ashe put the camera in his nose and down into his throat with no problem! they had even brought in an extra nurse to help out in case he freaked but she just stood there amazed! crazy kid!! we were so proud of him and dr ashe was able to get a good look at what was going on!
after this, they had the audiologist take e back to do another hearing test as well as a test to make sure his nerves were working correctly. he failed the hearing part on his left ear again but everything else was great! we’re hoping that some antibiotics to clear up the fluid in his ear will solve this little problem but will go back in a month to see.
while e was back with brian having the hearing test done, dr ashe came out and spoke with me about the speech issue. he said that e’s there is a flap attached to his palate {maybe his epiglottis?? I’m not sure…} that should close off when he says his “sh” or “ch” sounds. his doesn’t which is why it comes across so nasally. he is going to have e tested to see just how bad his particular case is. best case is that he just needs speech therapy to strengthen the muscle that allows this flap to close. worst case is that we will be referred to a plastic surgeon who specializes in cleft palates {apparently this is similar?!?!} to have it surgically repaired.
clearly, we’re praying that a little speech therapy is all we need but are glad that we followed our instincts on this one and had him tested. parents really do know best and while we don’t want to have to go the surgical route, we know that if that is what he needs to speak normally, we are glad that we are getting it taken care of now instead of when he’s older and it’s harder to correct.
soooo, we are now in a waiting game. we are waiting to see when we will have this test to see how bad this flap issue is. we are waiting to see if he qualifies for therapy through the district {although I’m fairly sure he will}. we are waiting to see if these antibiotics clear up the fluid in his ears so that he can hear better or if we are going to have to do tubes again. lots of waiting and trusting that what we are doing is what is best for our little guy.
the good news in all of this is that what we are dealing with is not a life threatening illness or anything of that sort. while parts of it may not be fun, at the end of the day, our little guy is still perfect in our eyes and perfectly healthy!
sadly, I took no pictures of the camera in e’s nose. I was too nervous for him and didn’t even think to take a pic. it was pretty crazy!
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