Phonological Disorder

I realized that I haven't really said anything about Alex's speech, and since I am trying to document the kids' milestones as much as possible, I thought I should do a post on it.

As a baby, Alex had severe reflux and constant ear infections. He was always congested. He was on several different meds for reflux and "preventative" antibiotics that basically did nothing for his ear problems. After many, many doctor's appointments, ENT appointments, and hearing tests he had ear tubes put in at 14 months. He grew out of the reflux around 18 months and was weaned off the meds.

He didn't really start using words until after his ear tubes were put in, and was very difficult to understand. At 18 months our pediatrician referred us to Early Intervention. They assessed him and agreed that he had a delay and began weekly occupational and speech therapy sessions.

Today he talks a lot and uses sentences, but it is difficult for people outside of the family to understand him unless it is in context. He generally leaves off the beginning or ending sounds. With blends (br, st, sn) he will do one sound or the other, or leave it off completely. 'Snack" is "nak", "milk" is 'nilk", "Diego" is 'iego'.

A few weeks ago we had him tested to see if he qualifies for a local preschool that specializes in speech problems. He was diagnosed with a 'Severe Phonological Disorder'. It basically means he does not use sounds appropriately for his age. At nearly 3 years old, outsiders should understand him 75% of the time. That does not happen. They are positive it is because of his ear and congestion problems during the most critical time to learn sounds. His comprehension and reasoning, however, is way above average. During the test he understood concepts and questions at a 4 year old level. I thought that was awesome.

So he qualifies for the preschool, but for their phonological classes (which are 3 hours, 2 days a week) they prefer them to be 3+ years and somewhat self sufficient. So the current plan is to keep with the weekly sessions from Early Intervention, and then put him in the more intensive preschool session in January. We'll evaluate everything in December and make sure that is still the best option for him.