Speech and physical delays
I'm just curious: how many of your boys showed speech or physical delays as infants/toddlers? I understand that many boys with DMD are delayed, and that's one thing that tips off parents that there may be something wrong. So far Max (7 months old) is developing appropriately for his age -- just wondering when I might see him start to get "behind" on milestones. I'm also wondering if it's possible to predict speech delays in infancy. So far Max makes all the sounds/babbling he is supposed to, so I'm wondering if that might indicate he won't have speech delays later. Thanks!!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Susana Arroyo on
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Not all boys with dmd will have speech delays.
I just really depends on each case.
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Permalink Reply by Laurie Paschal on
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Sam first began with speech therapy when he was about 20 months (I think, could be a bit early, the memory is failing). This was before we knew about his DMD. At that point, he had no words. He babbled up a storm, but couldn't say a single word. He's now caught up for the most part, but still receives therapy for articulation issues. As for physical, he walked at 13½ months, which is in the normal time frame. His twin brother walked at 12½ months. The thing with Sam was that I always said he looked like a little old man when getting around. Especially when getting up from the floor. He always had to pull up on something. He couldn't get up on his own until he was well over 2. He also could not climb stairs without using his hands on the risers above him. I thought it was b/c of his short little legs. He was diagnosed about 2 months before his 3rd birthday.
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Permalink Reply by Ivy Scherbarth on
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Our daughter is a carrier and was/is delayed in her speech. She babbled a lot but with a limited number of sounds. She was able to master several signs (American Sign Language) "on time" or a little late, but didn't really begin speaking anything (nothing, not even "mama" and "papa") until just past her 2nd birthday. Now she's turning 4 next week and we're looking into speech therapy. She talks a lot, even some sophisticated words ... but with a limited set of sounds (making it virtually impossible for strangers to understand her). She doesn't say the sounds that go with these letters: g, k, s, z, sh, v ... just subs in a d or t for everything.
Our son, who has DMD, is now 20 months. He learned to be stable when placed in sitting around 7-8 months. He still doesn't like to roll over, but that seemed pretty "on time" if rare. But that's pretty much as far as he's made it. He still cannot get from lying down to sitting up without help or vice versa. He does not spontaneously stand, though now he can do it, supported, with help from his PT or parent. He does not crawl. He can scoot on his bottom and has gotten pretty good at it, so now he can finally get into toddler-style mischief. He developed that around 17-18 months. He has been in PT every week only for the last 3 months or so. His diagnosis was when he was 14 months (we were in denial for a long long time despite his obvious, major delays).
Our son's speech is also a bit delayed ... though not in comparison to his sister's. He has a combination of signs and words that he uses regularly, even including signs for "thank you" (rarely) and "excuse me" (consistently). We are working on it some more.
On speech: A speech therapist encouraged us to use sign language, and it really does help in communication and frustration. There are some good "baby sign language" resources out there and we've found that a lot of parents are doing this anyway. We have also been told to do a few things that are sometimes easy to forget: talk to/with your child a lot, do finger games (like "Where is Thumbkin?") and nursery rhymes (Mother Goose is classic). Sing to/with your child. Read aloud, a lot, both to your child from kids' books but also anything you happen to be reading ("Add two tablespoons ..." or your local newspaper or whatever).
Good luck!
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Permalink Reply by Lori Ware on
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my son never crawled, he booty scooted. He could not lift himself up on all fours to crawl....
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Permalink Reply by Karen Barnett on
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My son did the army crawl from a very early age. He didn't start walking until he was 18 months old. We never noticed anything really out of the ordinary with his speech until he was around 4 yrs old and it started to regress. All of a sudden we could hardly understand anything he said. He wasn't articulating right and was getting harder and harder to understand. We took him to the pediatrician to investigate and it was then that we found out his adnoids were huge. They attributed it to that. After they were removed his speech got a little better but was still slow & hard to understand with articulation problems. A few months later we got the DMD diagnosis on his 5th B'Day. Speech was started when he began school a few months later. While his processing is slow and he sometimes has to really think about what he says he is much more fluent now and we can understand him perfectly at 7. What I noticed first, before any of the muscle weakness with my son was the behavior. He didn't seem to be maturing and the behaviors were off. My youngest son (no DMD) had speech problems from the beginning - much worse than my son who has DMD. We noticed it at about 18 months. At 2 we had him evaluated by the school and he qualified for speech services right away. They said he was speech delayed. After a year of that and now in the "Spot Program" he is talking great! Problem now is we can't ever get him to stop talking!!
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Permalink Reply by carrie on
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my son had a significant speech delay. As a baby he drooled more than most and could not lick pudding off the sides of his mouth. even during babbling speech therapist noted insufficiencieis.
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Permalink Reply by Karen on
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Hi
My son did the army crawl, crawled, cruised (pulled himself up on stuff and walked by 18 months. I wasn't concerned about these delays because everyone in my husbands family walked late. What concerned me was that he never bounced. You know when you hold a baby up and they push up with their legs and bounce? Erik never did this. He also marked time on stairs. We started the diagnosis process at his third year well child visit.
Erik's speech was not delayed at all. I think his 3rd word was combine (we live on a farm).
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yep, I forgot about the excessive drooling! We did lots of that too! We didn't walk until 17 mths and that was after 2 mths of PT....no speech delays or behavior issues. Also had 'great looking' calves...envy of everyone!!!! Yeah right!!
carrie said:my son had a significant speech delay. As a baby he drooled more than most and could not lick pudding off the sides of his mouth. even during babbling speech therapist noted insufficiencieis.
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Permalink Reply by Veronica E. on
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Karen said:Hi
What concerned me was that he never bounced. You know when you hold a baby up and they push up with their legs and bounce? Erik never did this. Erik's speech was not delayed at all. I think his 3rd word was combine (we live on a farm).
You know, the standing on my lap is the one area I think Max is behind in. I saw a little three-month-old baby at the pediatrician's office who was standing on her mom's lap, just holding on to her mom's fingers! Max definately is not as strong when I stand him up in my laugh.
That's hilarious that his third word was combine! :)
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Permalink Reply by Sharyn Thompson on
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James was diagnosed at 2. We had no idea during his infancy that anything was wrong. It wasn't until his sister, who's 12 months younger, started talking and walking better and could climb stairs that we thought something maybe wrong.
James was sitting by 6 months, though he was never a steady or well balanced sitter. But we thought nothing of it as we had no other child to compare him to.
He never crawled, he just rolled everywhere. I had heard of babies not crawling and assumed he preferred rolling.
He walked days before his1st birthday, and even though he constantly fell we had no one else to compare him with.
His first words were at 6 months and he had a few good words by one year old, but then he stopped saying any new words. In fact, he stopped talking almost completely.
He ALWAYS had trouble with stairs, and in our ignorance we thought he was lazy and tried to make games of it, to no avail.
He was, and still is when he concentrates, an EXCESSIVE drooler!
We took him to a doctor, worried about his speech, the stairs, and continual falls, when he was 2, and he was diagnosed on the spot! And this has been our life since!
After speech therapy, he talks all the time. He has a wonderful vocabulary, although still some difficulty with some sounds but we're getting there. He can now run, jump, ride a bicycle and bound up and down the stairs, thanks to deflazacort and constant PT. Life has certainly improved. But I am constantly being reminded that that will change. However, I am living for now and will cross that bridge when we come to it!
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Permalink Reply by MommaToo on
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Just my 2 cents, my step-son Brandon was a late walker according to his mom and dad. I believe they said he was about 18 months when he finally started walking. His dad said that he actually didnt talk much up until he was about 3. He had his adenoids taken out when he was 3 and my husband says they couldnt get him to be quiet after that! He still has some speech issues, but they are mild. Most folks dont even notice them. He has trouble at times with "finding" the right words. Once he "finds them" though, he is on a roll! His dad says he cant remember if Brandon had the drooling.
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James also had his adenoids removed, prior to his Dx, and it made a significant difference to his drooling. However, he still drools when he is concentrating hard on something.
MommaToo said:Just my 2 cents, my step-son Brandon was a late walker according to his mom and dad. I believe they said he was about 18 months when he finally started walking. His dad said that he actually didnt talk much up until he was about 3. He had his adenoids taken out when he was 3 and my husband says they couldnt get him to be quiet after that! He still has some speech issues, but they are mild. Most folks dont even notice them. He has trouble at times with "finding" the right words. Once he "finds them" though, he is on a roll! His dad says he cant remember if Brandon had the drooling.
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