Hannah's Speech

I took Hannah to USU last week to get her speech evaluated. My mom works in the Education Department of the University and knows some of the people over in the Communication Department so she helped set up the evaluation. Hannah's speech has improved a lot since we left Virginia, but she's still so far behind and we've been wondering if it's affecting her learning. They did some of the same tests that were done in Virginia and some other tests and stuff. Overall it was very interesting and though I didn't learn much that I didn't already know, I'm glad she went and hopefully it will help us get her some good speech therapy in Idaho.

They started out with a hearing test which she flunked with flying colors. They don't think it was her hearing (or lack thereof) just the fact that they couldn't get the things in her ear properly due to her little ears and her unwillingness to cooperate (she really doesn't like people playing with her ears especially with 10 unknown adults staring at her.) They did recommend getting her ears tested just in case she needs tubes. After many hearing test they took us to a little room where they watched her talk while playing and asked her questions to see how she'd respond. The entire process took nearly 2 and a half hours and Hannah did wonderfully. That's a long time for a 2 year old to sit, but she did her best and only became unwilling to participate at the very end.

I was told that Hannah is very bright (we already knew this) but she definitely has speech problems (du!) and they are affecting her learning ability slightly (meaning she's not learning some of the typical things a 2 year old should learn like colors, shapes, and so on.) She qualifies for a special needs preschool at this time, but can't go until next year when she's 3. They also tried to determine what is wrong with her. The best way to describe what they think is wrong is by saying she acts like she has a cleft pallet, but she doesn't. She talks a lot through her nose, but not all the time and in order to do this she must close off her throat with her tongue. They've mostly ruled out any physical problems in her mouth because she can turn off her nasal talk sometimes and kids with physical problems can't do that. They believe it's just the way she taught herself to talk and she needs retaught.

They recommended intense (meaning 2 to 3 days a week) speech therapy for 3 months and then another evaluation. After seeing what progress she made in Virginia with twice a month therapy, I'm very intrigued to see what intense therapy will do for her. I really hope it works like they think it will and that she'll be talking well by the beginning of next year. We're still waiting to hear back from them on a good therapist here in Idaho Falls, but when she gets in therapy I'll keep you posted on her progress.