Update on Megan's Speech

Thank you for your prayers for Megan. We have been encouraged to seek further medical attention in order to make sure that there are no other problems behind her speech delay. Our upcoming visit to Kampala to see the speech therapist will also involve an appointment with a Pediatrician (particularly one with experience in child development) for a hearing test and evaluation (September 25th). This seems to be the best place to start. If necessary, we are also now aware of a Pediatric Neurologist who comes highly recommended. The Lord continues to wonderfully provide. Thank you for the good encouragement and counsel, which we received from many of you!

Comments

KevinandJD said…
I don't know if you remember us from the ARA but we were stationed out in Bundibugyo with World Harvest Mission for the last 10 years. Our second child, Louisa, had a similiar problem. By 3 she spoke less than 15 words, when she began speaking a bit more over the next 6 months only 10-20% of it was understandable by a familiar listener (the team and us!). She was late in several milestones (rolling over, sitting up, crawling) but fine in walking and general comprehension. My family has a long history of speech problems so we were watching her closely. At four she was evaluated by a speech therapist at a retreat we attended in Europe. "GO HOME." She told us, "Your daughter has severe speech issues." She hits her vowels, but not her consonants, she randomly uses ones shes likes regardless of the actual word, some she can't produce at all. 5 years ago we weren't as impressed by the ability of those in Kampala or Nairobi to evaluate her, so we made a quick trip back to the States for a month long evaluation. Her hearing tests showed some early loss of hearing due to frequent ear infections (we think) but had totally resolved by age four... her hearing was fine but she had problems distinugishing whether the sounds came from the right or the left. Her speech evaluation came back and she had severe speech articulation problems and some significant language delays. Most of her issues revolved around "general oral/motor weakness." Regardless, our therapist in the US suggested a fairly simple course of therapy to strengthen her lip, tongue and jaw muscles and some basic speech articulation "games" to be done everyday. We were able to do all of this in Bundibugyo! We are now in the US on furlough. Louisa is 8 years old and has made so much progress. She still struggles with her R sound at times and can get lost in a big word if she doesn't slow down, but she is completely comprensible by stangers and is doing very well in school. Many people aren't even aware that she had speech issues in the past. Please e-mail personally if you want. I've been there, out in the middle of nowhere as a missionary mom, wondering if your kid is going to be okay. We'll be praying.
kevinandjd@yahoo.com
September 6, 2008 at 6:54 AM
Freeman Family said…
Isn't it wonderful and yet scary to get all of those opinions out there? Just remember that LOTS of children have speech issues! As a pediatric neurology nurse we saw so many kids with speech delay and most of the time all other issues (Autism, etc.) were ruled out and speech therapy was all they needed. Please be encouraged and hopeful that our Lord is in control and will give you the grace and skill that you need to help Megan. Love you all! Kristie
September 6, 2008 at 3:07 PM
Unknown said…
Hi David and Sunshine.

My dad, Dr. Elise van der Jagt, mentioned to me that your little girl, Megan, is delayed in her speech development. I'm a speech pathologist and have seen quite a few children her age with speech/language delays due to a HUGE variety of reasons. I'm so glad that ya'll were able to find a speech therapist near where you are to evaluate her. The earlier the better. I also wanted to offer that, if you'd like, I would be more than willing to read over the evaluation report and share my thoughts/advice with you. Or if you have any other questions, or would just like a second opinion, please don't hesitate to ask! You can e-mail me if you'd like at rvanderjagt@gmail.com.
Cheers!
Rosemarie
September 6, 2008 at 5:40 PM
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