Is there a connection? My youngest has had low muscle tone (hypotonia) since birth, with mild ischem…

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Is there a connection? My youngest has had low muscle tone (hypotonia) since birth, with mild ischemia on ultrasound. She was late to hold her head up and sit, but after massage therapy, we saw progress. At 7 months, she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy – mild left-sided hemiparesis. She started walking at one year old. She started talking early, in sentences, and even reasoning, but didn't have a two-year-old's vocabulary. However, her speech was slurred, many sounds were incorrect, she substituted 'r' for 'l', had interdental pronunciation, and phonemic hearing impairment at 5 years old. We worked with speech therapists, underwent speech massage courses, and rehabilitation (massages, physical therapy, therapeutic exercises), and took nootropics after EEG. She's been taking vocal lessons since age 6. But unfortunately, dysarthria remained. At 5 years old, she couldn't walk 1 km. Through daily challenges, hikes, various sports, and electrical stimulation, by age 9, she learned to walk up to 10 km a day. But dyspraxia remained. She's very clumsy, can trip over her own feet and fall, often bumps into corners, even though she's been successfully learning acrobatics for two years now. In everyday life, she's still very clumsy and slow. We use various rehabilitation methods... of course, the progress is obvious compared to where she was! But I understand that one thing leads to another: hypotonia – impaired nerve impulses to the brain – slowness – lagging behind – attention deficit – clumsiness – awkwardness – difficulties with writing and reading (she reads long words syllable by syllable, distorts them, swaps syllables). According to the speech therapist, all sounds are produced correctly in isolation, but she's lazy about working the speech muscles. You can't constantly use electrical stimulation on the speech muscles, can you? She's been singing 3 times a week since this year: twice in a choir, once individually. I'm wondering, is it possible to correct all of this and outgrow it by age 11?
It says 3 and 5, but she wrote down 2 and 4. The teacher already marked everything in red. The teach…
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Pustovit Elena
Dyslexia and dysgraphia are typically diagnosed no earlier than age 9, and if they are present, they're lifelong. The goal is to adapt the child to adult life considering their specific needs, but we're not in Russia. Here, I feel, it's a bit different.
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tanya
If dysarthria occurs in early childhood, it often goes hand-in-hand with a general developmental delay of speech (ODS). Later on, if it's not fully compensated for, it can develop into dyslexia in school. There's a connection.
I can't say for sure about dyspraxia, as it's primarily a motor skills issue. However, if dysarthria is stimulated through fine motor skills, then a connection likely exists.
I don't think it can be completely eliminated, as they say, but it can be adapted to life. And successfully, too. Not everyone in life is put-together, has clear speech, and a rich vocabulary. Not everyone is given it, not everyone needs it.
My older daughter has ODS + dysarthria. Now I suspect dyslexia. But I don't plan to confirm it. Let her learn to live with it.
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Anna Morozova
tanya She's been playing piano since she was 6.5 years old, and she still confuses left and right. She always looks at her mole. She mixes up fingers (it says 1 and 3, but she picks others). She's inattentive.
It's hard for her to write and form letters neatly. Honestly, there are tons of problems.
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Anna Morozova
tanya Is your daughter already 11?
Has the dysarthria persisted?
Are you doing any rehabilitation or exercises?
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tanya
tanya I get left and right mixed up myself. Not because I don't know, but because my brain freezes! And I'm driving, too. My instructor used to laugh so hard, wondering how I'd drive alone if I didn't know which side was which. But the thing is, when I'm alone, I just instinctively know which way 👈️ or which way 👉️! I don't need the names, lol 🤣.
Kidneys are a whole other story. Even though they usually fully form by 12-13 years old. All I need is calligraphy and adult handwriting practice books...
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tanya
tanya November 12th. We read a lot. Dysarthria has almost compensated. And relatively recently. The mushy speech disappeared with the daily read-alouds. Sometimes, in a fit of emotion, saliva can accumulate, but that's common for everyone with dysarthria. She talks too fast and forgets to swallow. I stop her and remind her that it's better to tell something slower but more interesting than rushed and disjointed. With passive vocabulary (General Speech Underdevelopment), it's harder. Of course, her speech isn't like a 12-year-old's. Her vocabulary is good, but she forgets to use it in everyday life.
Oral retelling and creating outlines for retelling what she's read stimulate this well. But again, I can't always remind her about text structure, and in reality, she clearly won't construct her speech in her head and then engage in dialogue.
There's no rehabilitation right now. We're learning to live with what we have. Her academic performance is average. Sometimes better, sometimes worse.
She's in 5th grade now. What's interesting and her good relationship with the teacher are stronger motivators. For subjects that aren't interesting or if she dislikes the teacher, it's obviously worse.
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Yulya
My daughter also had similar diagnoses. She started speaking around 3.5 years old, more or less. At 6 years old, her speech was still hard to understand. Now she speaks well, with a good vocabulary. She's 12 years old now.
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