Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Speech Therapy

At Kinsley's 2 year old well child visit I expressed my concerns to her pediatrician about her speech. At the time, she wasn't saying nearly as many words as she should be, not talking using 2 or 3 phrases, and 99% of the words she was saying, she wasn't saying correctly. She was leaving the first consanant sounds off of almost every word and sometimes the ending as well. She agreed with me that, without a doubt she was not where she should be, so she sent in a referal to be evaluated by a speech therapist. I took her in for her evaluation a couple weeks ago and recently got the report back.

On the Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation, she scored a 59. A normal score is 73 which put her in the 8th %ile. The report said based on this test and observation, she has a "moderate-severe phonological disorder. She uses the following phonologial processes: Initial Consonant Deletion and Final Consonant Deletion . Her speech was juded to be moderately-severely decreased. The following sounds were also noted to be misarticulated: /p, b, w, m, n?." On the Rossetti Infant-Toddler Language scale she scored as an 18 month in Language Expression, but in play she scored as a 30-33 month old. She understand everything you tell her, but has problem is mostly with articulation.

Examples: jump= ump
bath= baf
cup= up or bup
cat= at
dog= og
Mickey Mouse= Ickey Douse
feet=beet
Phone= hone

She has started to say a lot more works and will repeat everything you say. The problem is, not just anyone knows what she is saying. I know most of what she is saying or I can figure it out by looking at whatever is around her for the most part. She still isn't talking in phrases. She will say a few phrases such as "Mommy's on(phone), "Nana's car", "More pease", etc.

The twins never had a problem with speaking so this is all new to me. They were early talkers. They seem to think is from her congenital hypothyroidism (speech delay is a common trait of children with this disease), or the numerous ear infections she had last winter.

She will start speech next Friday. Right now, the plan is for her to go once a week for a year.

No comments: