Jul. 6, 2008 - Update on Michelle's speech/hearing
Michelle was seen by IU 13 and thankfully meets the criteria to receive extensive treatment. Out of 70 words, she said 12 correctly. Hence, quite a deficiency. She will begin treatment by September and this will be weekly for 45 minutes per week for at least a year. Additionally, she was seen by an ENT specialist for her hearing secondary to a failed hearing test of her left ear. During the visit , he used an instrument to get inside the back of her ear. She had a lot of epithelial dead tissue in this ear. Enough to cover a 4x4 gauze pad. He "vacuumed this out" , as he told her. We repeated the hearing test in his office and she passed it. It may have impacted her speech a bit, but according to the speech therapist, she is behind in her lower jaw development/ motor skills in her mouth/tongue. She has a few problems so that is why she will need the intense speech therapy. This will continue as she enters kindergarten. If I homeschool her, we will need to find a private therapist and am told that the state will NOT pay for her therapy any longer. Our insurance will need to pick up the tab. Thank you for all the emails/posts re Michelle, I've learned a lot about speech delays just from them alone!
