Speech delay

[Girlprof]

Hi Everyone,

I haven't been around in awhile, but I posted a bit in fall 2009/2010 about our daughter. At that time we were dealing with a gross motor delay. We got services through birth to three and she caught up a lot and placed out of the program in summer 2010 at age 2.5.

Time passed and now we have two concerns.

First, for awhile now we have wondered about her hearing. We have been on the verge of tubes several times, but for a long time, her speech was fine. She had a string of ear infections in 2009, but they cleared up. We had an evaluation by an audiologist last spring that showed some concern. We dropped the ball, but we are back at it now. A second audiologist evaluation in October showed some hearing loss and fluid in her ears, but she had a cold. We are trying to get rid of the fluid with a nasal steroid spray.

We also have some speech concerns now. She had an evaluation this morning and definitely has a speech delay. The public schools are going to send a speech pathologist to her preschool once a week for the next few months while we continue to work on the hearing issue. They didn't want to do a  full IEP evaluation until we figure out more about her hearing.

Also, the gross motor delays continue. I wonder if they are worse now. I'm not sure how and whether to pursue this at the moment as we may be overwhelmed dealing with speech/hearing stuff.

Just looking for sympathy and been there/done that sort of stories. I know many children in this forum have much more severe issues than we do, but it's so heartbreaking to have our wonderful little girl have yet another problem to deal with. I won't even go into our potty training woes.

[~cassie]

How old is she and what are her gross motor delays?

Fluid can affect gross motor as can hearing loss.

My 4 yr old is deaf(has cochlear implants to hear) and we faced some gross motor and fine motor delays but not to a huge extent--like he walked at 15 mths(which is still normal) but he had a lot of trouble with picking up his feet/jumping and some other stuff that really wasn't too big of a deal and barely noticeable but was definitely there.  Please ask any question you want and I know there are plenty of us that should be able to answer!

[Linda on the move]

Originally Posted by Girlprof 

Also, the gross motor delays continue. I wonder if they are worse now. I'm not sure how and whether to pursue this at the moment as we may be overwhelmed dealing with speech/hearing stuff.

Just looking for sympathy and been there/done that sort of stories. I know many children in this forum have much more severe issues than we do,

  We are all here to support each other. You can have support for minor issues!  You still deserve to feel heard and to be re-assured and have a chance to talk to other parents.

About the gross motor stuff, is she close enough to age norms that she could take fun, regular class? My dd had/has gross motor issues, and in the preschool years I signed her up for things like Creative Movement, swimming, etc through our city's park and rec program. It was GREAT for her, and it never felt like therapy. It was also cheap.

[Girlprof]

Thank you guys. To answer some questions, she's three and a half, almost four. I guess 46 months, now that I work it out. She takes dance class, this is her second year already. We did a lot of swimming last year and I want to start that up again. Her delays are things like:

-Still takes stairs one at a time

-Walks much more slowly and less certainly than her age peers

-She can jump in place, but only just figured out how to jump off of something, even jumping an inch or two down

-Just this week started getting out of her car seat herself (YEAH!)

-Can only partially dress and undress herself. If her pants are around her ankles, she can pull them up, but she can't get her legs through the pant legs by herself.

That sort of thing.

The gross motor issue pre-dates the hearing issue. She didn't sit up unassisted until maybe 11-12 months? Walked around 18 months. Her speech was evaluated pretty regularly through Birth to Three until she was 2 and a half and it was always fine, even ahead.

I guess most of all I wish I could know if this stuff will ever go away, but of course, no one can answer that.

She's also not potty trained and we suspect that is related to the gross motor problem. We tried to start potty training over the summer. She has gone pee on her little potty a couple of times, but then she just started holding it. She would hold it so long that it was painful to her but she either couldn't or wouldn't release. So, we backed way off on that and just told her to use her diaper. No idea how to make progress in that area, but frankly, after seeing her in pain because she couldn't go, I also no longer care.

The more I think about it, the more I suspect that the speech is separate from the gross motor stuff. Otherwise why would it only be showing up now?

[Linda on the move]

Originally Posted by Girlprof 
I guess most of all I wish I could know if this stuff will ever go away, but of course, no one can answer that.
 

it's true that no one can answer that. My DD is now a teen still has some gross motor issues, but she also has some serious strengths. She loved swimming so much, and it was so great for her sensory issues, that she did it ALL the time and became a fabulous swimmer. She has a bunch of ribbons and a couple of trophies. Its the only sport she ever could have competed in, but I just wanted to let you know that even if your DD has some long term issues with motor skills, she can still do REALLY cool things. Her cool things may be different than my kids.

She'll continue to improve, but at her own rate. She'll have fun. She'll find things she's good at.

Stay hopeful.

[~cassie]

I am no expert in any of this.  Just in what worked for us :)  A trampoline REALLY helped my son with his gross motor.  his OT used it a lot in their sessions.  We also have an adaptive PE at our local university that is free(done by the kinesiology students) and it is awesome as well.  My son still has trouble with stairs and we had to install a rail on all of our outdoor stairs in order for him to navigate them but he has made huge strides in just the last year and you really can't see the delays unless you have a trained eye.