My son has phonological processing disorder. However, at one point his school SLP had me take him for a palate study. She was sure he had a submucous cleft or a velopharyngeal insuffeciency.
He had vocal nodules and there was a mild air escape in the pharynx closure, but not significant enough to warrant plastic surgery. I took him for a second opinion and that Dr. ruled it out completely saying he had no signs of it whasoever. So that ended that.
But I have always noticed that his speech requires a great deal of effort. The veins bulge on his neck and his words are strained. This makes his comments come across as though he is yelling at us most of the time. The palate study was almost a year ago. He’s made great improvements in his speech, but maybe I should consider taking him for yet a third opinion. I just realy hesitate to put him through all that without just cause for concern. Are any of you SLP familiar with oral motor issues that could cause such a strian on voice quality? Maybe it’s more common than I think and no need to stress over it (…along with everything else!)
Any insight would be helpful!
Re: voice quality in S&L disorder
Your comment about the veins bulging on his neck concerns me. Either there is a definite physical disorder that needs to be addressed, in which case you need to be going back to those doctors and/or getting a more specialized opinion ASAP; or else he has developed a habit of straining — I often see this in reading and writing, and sometimes even in walking or other activities, so it is possible in speech — and he needs SLP help ASAP before the habit gets even more ingrained. Either way I’d say to keep pushing for help.
vocal abuse
Man oh man…she thought he had a submucous cleft and he ended up with vocal nodules? This is a no brainer for this SLP…He needs VOCAL therapy for voical abusive behaviors…
Look up Kathleen Verdolini…on the internet she is the GURU for vocal abuse information. YOU DON’t WANT TO DO PLASTIC SURGERY ON VOCAL NODULES especially in a little kid…
Remember Julie Andrews, Mary Poppins, Sound of Music ring a bell? She cant’ sing like she used to because she had surgery on her vocal folds…they were stripped and now she doesn’t have the elasticty she had before when she had her soprano range becuase of surgery.
The Surgeon should have referred you to an SLP to work on his tension in his neck, he is using his neck muscles to force out his voice, and he needs to use his lungs and diaphram to project the air from his respiratory tract for volume not use his neck muscles. He needs to RELAX those neck muscles…and a good SLP should know what to do to help him…been there done that with adults myself… Good luck!!
http://www.herring.org/speech.html
This web site has an SLP forum. Ideally, it should be cut and pasted above my post a bit! Good luck and GOD bless. I sometimes think that with some youngsters who have issues such as the ones you are describing, need to learn breath control, that is a lay ladies opinion from having done volunteer work at the Speech Pathology clinic of my city. I wonder about what you are describing, though and maybe the hyperlink will help you out because you never know, eh!