Last Week’s Speech Assessment

Last week, Charlie had her speech and language assessment at the university (my alma mater) where she will receive her speech therapy. Other than it feeling incredibly strange to wheel a baby through the same building where I attended classes, the day went really well.

The first part of the evaluation addressed her hearing. Charlie was not exactly cooperative for this portion. She fussed and pulled the instrumentation out of her ears. However, the audiologists concluded that Charlie’s hearing is about average.

Next, her speech and language was evaluated. This part required Charlie to play with the examiner. She laughed and excitedly clapped as she played with the doting students who examined her.

Finally, the speech pathologist discussed the results of the exam with me. She thought Charlie may have dysarthria instead of apraxia. Dysarthria, she explained, is sometimes seen in kids like Charlie that have cerebral palsy and/or PVL.

Ultimately, the speech pathologist agreed with the developmental pediatrician’s recommendations of speech therapy twice a week. Additionally, she discussed the option of teaching Charlie to use PECS.

When the use of PECS was mentioned, I realized this was a long term issue that would not clear up with a few months of intensive speech therapy. My heart sank a little and I sighed out a bit of the hope I had been holding on to.

Despite that it was a long term issue, I felt the day went well. Everyone agreed that Charlie’s expressive speech was significantly delayed and there was a consensus on treatment.

Afterwards, I took Charlie to the children’s museum to burn off her last bit of energy.

There were some noisy kids at the children’s museum that Charlie did not approve of.