speech delays

[mnmom]

Alisa, my second daughter had oxygen deprivation before/at birth. She had respiratory issues throughout childhood, ear infections and asthma. She was a little shy and slow to warm as a young child, but I think her speech was age appropriate. She grew out of all of it, and is now finishing her junior year in college- pre med!

[alviarin]

My daughter was slightly speech delayed, probably due to ear congestion/ear infections. She never had quite enough ear infections for the pediatrician to talk ear tubes, but with hindsight I think she was having more infections than we realized. Sometimes my only clue she had an ear infection was if she was fussy or coughed a bit. She never ran a fever.

As a toddler signing helped. We checked out the signing time videos and "My baby can talk".

Right before she turned three I had her evaluated again for speech, they referred me to an ENT (apparently she was speaking "hypo-nasally".). We found out via a CT scan that she had huge adenoids. And her ears were congested again. At her pre-op appointment she had a bad ear infection again, and we didn't even know it! They said it wasn't uncommon for kids like her to be used to the discomfort and not complain. :( Ever since her adenoidectomy and having ear tubes put in her speech has greatly improved.

[celticepona]

We had/have sensory issues and speech delays with Emily, and she was my firstborn. I have no idea if this was caused by the PE or not but we knew something was off when she was about a year. We had to try several times with early intervention but finally got her services for OT. She only needed it for about a year and she made huge strides. Emily's sensory issues still present sometimes, (pressure seeking, noise sensitivity, texture sensitivity in her mouth and food aversions)and her social skills are sometimes 'different' when I compare her to other children her age. She loves to play with other kids but does not always pick up on social clues like personal space, etc...but she has come so far. I have to talk to Emily differently as well. I need to get her full attention before I speak to her otherwise she does not 'hear' me. Her speech really started to come around when she started preschool, and she made huge jumps and soon caught up...

its hard to tell where this comes from. My second child does not have these issues, but we caught PE early with her and got induced right away...Emily was in me for about a week and a half with PE before I was finally induced..I cant help but wonder if that had something to do with it...I have no clue...but hang in there, you are not alone. :)

[kisapaduga]

Celticepona,
Did they ever give you a reason for the speech delays and sensory issues (such as a specific diagnosis?) I ask this because several people (including the speech/OT therapists, etc.) are hinting that he may be "on the Spectrum". He sees a child psychiatrist on the 20th of this month, and then a psychologist in June (there was a long wait list). They state that both of them are able to give a diagnosis if that's actually what he has.
I've looked up info on oxygen deprivation at birth, and although I know his apgars were low (3 and 7), his blood pH was always normal, both in the cord blood and the arterial and venous draws they did in the NICU. So technically, the info I've read said he really didn't have oxygen deprivation if his blood pH was in the normal range.
So, I guess we'll wait and see what his other appointments show. I'm anxious to get everything rolling (he's still waiting for therapy to be set up).
Thanks to everyone for their help!