The kids are having a great time - they brought up a new toy for Kieran from the basement as well as a few toys they haven't played with for a while. Easy entertainment!
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Snow Day
The kids are having a great time - they brought up a new toy for Kieran from the basement as well as a few toys they haven't played with for a while. Easy entertainment!
Belated Hearing and Speech Update
I prepared this post a few weeks ago but never got around to typing a final sentence and posting it. I'm posting it now for those interested. The postscript is that Malcolm is now seeing the SLP who hosted the session I went to in January. He has had an assessment by her and will start receiving therapy sessions from her sometime in April.
...and for those of you who are wondering, we survived the storm with no problems - we did not lose power though it must've flickered in the night as the clocks needed to be reset this morning. There's a lot of snow but I don't think it's more than a few other storms we've had since we've lived here so for us, the storm did not live up to all the hype. All of us were home yesterday and the kids are still home today but Jan is back to work...beautiful sunny day out now!
Mary Ellen
We had some viruses plague us last month but we all seem to be well now. Unusually, Daddy was the most ill but seems to be doing better now. Grama and Grampa Rainey are back in Halifax and they boys are enjoying visits to their apartment and fun sledding outside. School is going well and we are in a good groove with all our scheduled activities.
The speech session I went to a few weeks ago was great. It is a system of hand cues that is intended to facilitate speech and later, reading and spelling. The basic premise is that individuals with Ds have difficulty forming and speaking words but can learn to do so if explicitly taught the individual sounds in each word, and how to blend those sounds. I think it will be great for Malcolm. I am hoping to get some private lessons with the SLP who has developed this system.
Malcolm had a hearing test last week. It was suggested to me by this SLP because I had mentioned to her that I have been frustrated that Malcolm seemed to be saying some words and sounds really well but then over the past several months has been substituting similar sounds. For example, he says "nore" instead of "more"and "boap" instead of "boat" where he used to be able to consistently say these words clearly.
The results of the hearing test didn't really get to the root of the problem. Because he is older and more able to follow directions, the audiologist was able to get a much more precise reading of his hearing than ever before. He has mild hearing loss in one ear that has "negative pressure". Basically this ear feels as if it needs to pop all the time so sound is mildly distorted. In the other ear, he has more moderate hearing loss. They believe it is due to a hole in his ear that has resulted from where an ear tube used to be. It can happen sometimes that the tubes to not fall out as they are supposed to and then the tissue around it becomes inflamed. Malcolm had an old tube removed in July when he had his tonsils taken out. The hope is that the hole will heal on its own. If not - more surgery to repair the hole.
The ENT doctor feels that Malcolm's recent hearing/speech issues may be caused by this hole - he thinks it is slightly bigger than in early October when he last looked at it. He believes Malcolm may have had an infection in the hole this fall that inflamed it further. There was no sign of infection last week so the doctor believes that the hole will start to get smaller. He will check it again in six months. He does not feel that the hole is so much bigger that there should be a significant change in Malcolm's hearing relative to the fall, so he's not sure that a hearing issue is at the root of Malcolm's recent speech struggles.
So at least we know Malcolm does not have any really significant hearing issues. Still not sure why the recent speech struggles but hopefully we can get back on track by following this speech program I just learned about. His learning centre teacher and EPAs are going to try to use it at school - all three were at the same session I attended, which is fantastic. Maybe it is just a matter of getting Malcolm to focus more on what he is saying.
...and for those of you who are wondering, we survived the storm with no problems - we did not lose power though it must've flickered in the night as the clocks needed to be reset this morning. There's a lot of snow but I don't think it's more than a few other storms we've had since we've lived here so for us, the storm did not live up to all the hype. All of us were home yesterday and the kids are still home today but Jan is back to work...beautiful sunny day out now!
Mary Ellen
We had some viruses plague us last month but we all seem to be well now. Unusually, Daddy was the most ill but seems to be doing better now. Grama and Grampa Rainey are back in Halifax and they boys are enjoying visits to their apartment and fun sledding outside. School is going well and we are in a good groove with all our scheduled activities.
The speech session I went to a few weeks ago was great. It is a system of hand cues that is intended to facilitate speech and later, reading and spelling. The basic premise is that individuals with Ds have difficulty forming and speaking words but can learn to do so if explicitly taught the individual sounds in each word, and how to blend those sounds. I think it will be great for Malcolm. I am hoping to get some private lessons with the SLP who has developed this system.
Malcolm had a hearing test last week. It was suggested to me by this SLP because I had mentioned to her that I have been frustrated that Malcolm seemed to be saying some words and sounds really well but then over the past several months has been substituting similar sounds. For example, he says "nore" instead of "more"and "boap" instead of "boat" where he used to be able to consistently say these words clearly.
The results of the hearing test didn't really get to the root of the problem. Because he is older and more able to follow directions, the audiologist was able to get a much more precise reading of his hearing than ever before. He has mild hearing loss in one ear that has "negative pressure". Basically this ear feels as if it needs to pop all the time so sound is mildly distorted. In the other ear, he has more moderate hearing loss. They believe it is due to a hole in his ear that has resulted from where an ear tube used to be. It can happen sometimes that the tubes to not fall out as they are supposed to and then the tissue around it becomes inflamed. Malcolm had an old tube removed in July when he had his tonsils taken out. The hope is that the hole will heal on its own. If not - more surgery to repair the hole.
The ENT doctor feels that Malcolm's recent hearing/speech issues may be caused by this hole - he thinks it is slightly bigger than in early October when he last looked at it. He believes Malcolm may have had an infection in the hole this fall that inflamed it further. There was no sign of infection last week so the doctor believes that the hole will start to get smaller. He will check it again in six months. He does not feel that the hole is so much bigger that there should be a significant change in Malcolm's hearing relative to the fall, so he's not sure that a hearing issue is at the root of Malcolm's recent speech struggles.
So at least we know Malcolm does not have any really significant hearing issues. Still not sure why the recent speech struggles but hopefully we can get back on track by following this speech program I just learned about. His learning centre teacher and EPAs are going to try to use it at school - all three were at the same session I attended, which is fantastic. Maybe it is just a matter of getting Malcolm to focus more on what he is saying.
Friday, March 21, 2014
World Down Syndrome Day 2014
Happy World Down Syndrome Day!
A few photos of Malcolm at Christmas time as well as one earlier in the fall holding his little brother.
If you have not yet seen this videoclip, suggest you take a minute - it's quite short but powerful.
Mary Ellen
A few photos of Malcolm at Christmas time as well as one earlier in the fall holding his little brother.
If you have not yet seen this videoclip, suggest you take a minute - it's quite short but powerful.
Mary Ellen
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)