Decanned speech. Which letters are issues?

[suzanne2545]

Just curious. Parker has been decannulated for a year and a half. His speech is coming along nicely but he seriously has issues with any letters that require the front of the mouth: f, th, etc. He substitutes those sounds with hard sounds that originate from the back of the mouth. I'm interested if that is a Parker issue or typical with decannulated kids.

[hcs_mom]

Hannah struggled with those for a LONG time. We are almost 3 years out. She has trouble still with r and y. Lots of others, but those are what comes to mind right now.

We are currenltly really hammering on speaking on exhale vs. inhale. In a controlled environment, she does pretty well. But when excited, it's whatever is convenient.

Jen

[Trix]

Dont go there with speech - it is the bain of my life!! Isabelle has been decannulated since Dec 07 with complete stoma closure in Feb 08. She now says Dad, Mum, down, bye bye - they are the clear words. No is Wo and yes is yeah. Hello is oollow (?). We are doing speech therapy once a week specialising in PROMPT therapy. Isabelle will be 4 in June. We are starting special "toddler talk" in Feb which specialises in kids with a speech problem. It is 2 hours a week. Isabelle has NEVER socialised with other kids so we are hoping that her speech will come on when she does. She has no other problems and fully understands everything. We are even cutting down on signing to try and encourage talking.

I too would love to know how others went.

Tracey

[LKN]

Parker is young and so some of the issues are related to his age, not the trach. What does your speech therapist tell you? Nathan just turned 4 and just started working on "f" before he turned 4. He was ready for it and can now say it perfectly. But he did use the hard sounds before he figured it out. His therapist says that the "th" takes a good long while for most kids--even kids who never had a trach.

We've got Nathan in speech twice a week down at the children's hospital, and we have noticed a huge difference--in a good way. Even though Nathan has zero speech delays/zero developmental delays the speech therapy helps him with breath control--like Hannah, Nathan speaks on inhale and exhale. Our therapist says that that, too, takes time and older kids just "get it"--their bodies are ready for "normal" speech, etc. We practice and practice, and he is figuring it out.

I'm sure I've said it before (I tend to be a broken record!), but we found that the school district speech therapists just don't have the knowledge/training/experience that the hospital speech therapists do. If there is nothing going on with Parker's brain, i.e., if his speech issues are related to the structure of the airway, not the messages coming from his brain, then the hospital therapists can be wonderful. They have seen more cases of children post-reconstructive airway surgery and know what to focus on. For example, Nathan had one early intervention therapist who was convinced that he had apraxia--he does not--and oral aversion--he does not. And so she spent all of her time making us use tools to stimulate his mouth. It did absolutely nothing to help him.

Sorry this is long and rambling...pm me or call me if you want more info...I have all sorts of opinions on this topic!!

[suzanne2545]

Tracey,

I can tell you that hands down, one of the biggest improvements we've seen in Parker's speech and vocab is from preschool. He is highly competative and it has really spurred him to try.

Suzanne

[Topher's Mom]

Christopher has been decanned for a year and half & his speech has improved greatly in the last few months. That said, he is having trouble with the f, k, g,z, & j. It took a long time but his s is just now coming. He substitutes d & t for most of those.

Karol

[Wooders80]

Dominic's not decanned, but he does struggle with front of mouth sounds too. He is slowly improving, but still struggles with "f", "s" and "t", he seems to substitutes a "g" instead, a nice back of mouth sound. I have to agree though, the thing that has helped his speech the most is pre-school.

We are due to start a sound awareness course this month, as Dominic's speech therapist thinks children have to realise they are saying the sound wrong before they'll start to correct it. I'm not really convinced this is Dominic's problem, but it we do get miracle results I'll report back!

[suzanne2545]

Our ST says that much of it is age related. She is through the school district but she is very, very good. And she's very willing to learn all she can about his history. Up until now that has come from us but she is slated to speak to the team in Cincinnati this week, actually.

I'm not overly concerned with his speech, I'm delighted with it actually! Just more curious than anything if there are consistent issues with post LTP kids.

Parker, all in, is actually ahead of where Griffin was at this age. Griffin had hearing issues with his adenoids so he didn't really even start talking until he was nearly three.

[Melisande]

Donovan has language delays and made/makes similar sounds for some letters in the back of his throat. Now that his stoma is closed, it's better, but he lost both front teeth over the holiday, so it's hard but he tries and tries. Donovan has issues with apraxia and autism and he's 6 1/2 years old, however and that was something we had to sort through with time. Parker sounds closer to typical to me, however, than Donovan.

[kadiera]

Originally Posted by LKN

I'm sure I've said it before (I tend to be a broken record!), but we found that the school district speech therapists just don't have the knowledge/training/experience that the hospital speech therapists do.

As a side note, our school's speech therapist didn't know you could get speaking valves for a trach. ARGH!

That being said....we've already noticed that Alexander doesn't get that he has to move his lips to make certain sounds. I don't know if that's an age thing (almost 19 months actual/16 adjusted) or a trach thing.