New Diagnoses from SLP

[Guest guest]

My son, Tyler, just turned 18 months. We have recently found 2 new

SLP's since we were not getting anywhere with our original speech

therapist of 5 months. The original SLP told us Tyler hopefully just

had a speech delay. One of the new SLPs strongly feels this is oral

hypotonia and verbal apraxia so we have begun to see her twice a

week. Tyler has finally begun to babble and can vocalize now when he

wants something (although it's mostly just, " mmm, bababa, and

occasionally up " ) so we are seeing improvement at last. We also

started him on Omega 3-6-9 so maybe this is what's working. Then I

finally got a call from a PROMPT SLP whose waitlist I have been on

for 5 months now. We just went for an evaluation and she agrees that

Tyler has oral hypotonia and decreased oral sensation and possible

motor planning difficulty. She feels that apraxia could be a

possibility but it's too soon to tell. I am hoping some oral motor

exercises will help all of this but who knows. My original SLP never

even picked up on the hypotonia even though I told her that he is

always drooling with an open mouth posture and he can't use his lips

or tongue right. I'm just writing in to see if anyone has had a

similar diagnosis and can share their experience with me. The new

SLP also recommends we see an OT who can work with Sensory

Integration Dysfunction. I just googled this because I had never

heard of it before and Tyler doesn't fit any of the characteristics.

He does have decreased sensation in the mouth as he constantly

overstuffs his mouth and was never a baby who would explore toys with

the mouth. Can OT help with these oral and speech issues? Sorry if

I rambled too much. Any thoughts or advice is greatly appreciated!

(Tyler's mom)