Hi All :wave: I don't start threads here very often, but I thought I would post a quick update on my son in case it can help other mums out there!
My son was diagnosed with hypotonia (low muscle tone) and hypermobility when he was 11 months and not able to do much physically (no rolling/crawling, etc). He was also assessed for a speech delay because he was unable to make sounds (cooing, vowels, etc). He was again assessed by a developmental ped team + speech therapy at 18 months and began speech therapy a few months later. He did not require any physio because by 18 months he could walk. Anyway - he is 2 in a few weeks and doing SO fabulous! He is still not very swift on his feet (lots of tripping, can't run or jump, etc) but is doing great.
One of the biggest things that was troubling was his speech because we didn't know what was the cause. At 18 months he could still not say very many sounds (not words - just vocalizing sounds). He started speech therapy but I wasn't sure how much it was helping as he had good interaction, but would not vocalize at all. Anyway after our appointment with the dev.ped. again yesterday, they think the issue has been the hypotonia all along. They did a full analysis of different mouth motor skills aside from speech and found that he isn't able to do quite a few things. It is a big relief that we are getting somewhere with finding out why he is having trouble! They aren't 100% sure of course, but it seems to fit much better than just a general dev.delay.
So I thought I would post some of the symptoms for people who are concerned, googling, and perhaps freaking out. Especially if your LO has low muscle tone generally. It might be something to ask your doc or HV about - as it took a long time for them to look at this! Symptoms my son has or had:
- No speech
- Not chewing properly (I wasn't aware of this because he is my only LO and I had nothing to compare it to!)
- Mouth almost always open
- Took a long time to be able to blow bubbles or suck from a straw. He still can't blow raspberries.
- Communication and understanding are far more advanced than his ability to vocalize
- Drooling
- Now that my son can make some sounds/words they are not understandable to other people and he can only make a sound from one part of his mouth.
Obviously these symptoms could be lots of different things, but the therapy for helping a speech delay because of hypotonia is different from other therapies. It focuses much more on mouth structure and muscle strengthening. So it's worth an ask if what I wrote sounds familiar!
Also wanted to mention my LO is doing so well with his communication generally. I have taken a few courses for children with dev.delays and they have been so helpful in my every day life with him. They focus on communication and interaction with the kids rather than words, and once I understood how important that was it helped so much with our frustration. He can communicate with us now (combination of minimal words/sounds/gestures/pictures) and I feel like I am getting to know him in a whole new way! I was so focused on the words before that I wasn't paying attention to what he WAS saying.
Oops - hope I didn't make this too long! Just thought I would post.
Hopefully it will help someone!
My son was diagnosed with hypotonia (low muscle tone) and hypermobility when he was 11 months and not able to do much physically (no rolling/crawling, etc). He was also assessed for a speech delay because he was unable to make sounds (cooing, vowels, etc). He was again assessed by a developmental ped team + speech therapy at 18 months and began speech therapy a few months later. He did not require any physio because by 18 months he could walk. Anyway - he is 2 in a few weeks and doing SO fabulous! He is still not very swift on his feet (lots of tripping, can't run or jump, etc) but is doing great.
One of the biggest things that was troubling was his speech because we didn't know what was the cause. At 18 months he could still not say very many sounds (not words - just vocalizing sounds). He started speech therapy but I wasn't sure how much it was helping as he had good interaction, but would not vocalize at all. Anyway after our appointment with the dev.ped. again yesterday, they think the issue has been the hypotonia all along. They did a full analysis of different mouth motor skills aside from speech and found that he isn't able to do quite a few things. It is a big relief that we are getting somewhere with finding out why he is having trouble! They aren't 100% sure of course, but it seems to fit much better than just a general dev.delay.
So I thought I would post some of the symptoms for people who are concerned, googling, and perhaps freaking out. Especially if your LO has low muscle tone generally. It might be something to ask your doc or HV about - as it took a long time for them to look at this! Symptoms my son has or had:
- No speech
- Not chewing properly (I wasn't aware of this because he is my only LO and I had nothing to compare it to!)
- Mouth almost always open
- Took a long time to be able to blow bubbles or suck from a straw. He still can't blow raspberries.
- Communication and understanding are far more advanced than his ability to vocalize
- Drooling
- Now that my son can make some sounds/words they are not understandable to other people and he can only make a sound from one part of his mouth.
Obviously these symptoms could be lots of different things, but the therapy for helping a speech delay because of hypotonia is different from other therapies. It focuses much more on mouth structure and muscle strengthening. So it's worth an ask if what I wrote sounds familiar!
Also wanted to mention my LO is doing so well with his communication generally. I have taken a few courses for children with dev.delays and they have been so helpful in my every day life with him. They focus on communication and interaction with the kids rather than words, and once I understood how important that was it helped so much with our frustration. He can communicate with us now (combination of minimal words/sounds/gestures/pictures) and I feel like I am getting to know him in a whole new way! I was so focused on the words before that I wasn't paying attention to what he WAS saying.
Oops - hope I didn't make this too long! Just thought I would post.
Hopefully it will help someone!