I will be taking Makenna to a specialist at Riley for her speech. Last summer, she saw a specialist in Cincinnati ~ who was wonderful! And who kindly offered to see her again and put her in a special clinic and do two sessions of therapy in a day to make the drie worth it... but I thought I would try to see if we could get quality care for her odd speech issue close to home. She has a couple of things that effect her speech. A submucous cleft palate (cleft uvula) and a velopharyngeal disorder/insufficiancy. This was all determined by the doctor in Cincinnati. I took her because her "s" sound comes straight through her nose. It is a noise I can't reproduce... But if you plug her nose, she absolutely cannot make an "s". She should be able to. Your velum is supposed to open and close the airway passage to your nose. On an "s", your velum is supposed to close, so that no air comes through your nose. Makenna does just the opposite. Her velum lowers so that the airway is completely open. There is success in treating it with speech therapy, but it takes an experiences speech pathologist who has dealt with such unique issues.
Oddly enough, the only way to a speech pathologist at Riley appears to be through the craniofacial / cleft palate department. So, in a way... lucky for us, Makenna has a submucous cleft palate. That got us in to the specialist at Riley. I don't know yet whether the speech pathologist have ever treated this or not. I'm hoping we get to that point on Monday. The appointment, I have been warned, will last most of the morning. She will see the plastic surgeon, an audiologist, a otolarytologist, and a speech pathologist. Should be fun. Hopefully, we can get straight to the point and discuss her speech and make a plan.
Oddly enough, the only way to a speech pathologist at Riley appears to be through the craniofacial / cleft palate department. So, in a way... lucky for us, Makenna has a submucous cleft palate. That got us in to the specialist at Riley. I don't know yet whether the speech pathologist have ever treated this or not. I'm hoping we get to that point on Monday. The appointment, I have been warned, will last most of the morning. She will see the plastic surgeon, an audiologist, a otolarytologist, and a speech pathologist. Should be fun. Hopefully, we can get straight to the point and discuss her speech and make a plan.