I am hoping the wise members of this forum might have some information to share about dysarthria.
If you have been following our saga you will know that my DD10 has been diagnosed with just about every possible LD, most labeled as "severe". Dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia (motor apraxia), math disability, visual perception issues, CAPD, fine motor deficits as well as eosinophilic esophogitis and migraines. She no longer qualifies for an anxiety diagnosis and migraines are under good control now that she is in a supportive school environment - OOD in a spec Ed school. Migraine meds were having significant cognitive impact so we have been weening her off them. (Now down to 30% of her original dose with a plan to try removing them completely this fall if the migraines stay under control.)
With migraines, anxiety and school situation all under control I have been focusing on trying to figure out whatever may be underlying all of this. I find it hard to believe that one kid could get so lucky as to have all of this going on without something connecting it all. This led to the CAPD diagnosis and VT for the visual perception issues. The audiologist from the CAPD eval had concerns about DD's speech and connected us to an SLP at her state flagship university. Still awaiting the report but if I understood her correctly at the time of the eval there is an obvious motor speech component and she is going to diagnose dysarthria.
I am trying my best to understand this as reading up on it makes it look like dysarthria is usually the result of a stroke or major head injury. With further research I came to a site that listed 150 possible causes of dysarthria. With no medical background I found the list confusing and overwhelming.
DD was a superstar as a baby/toddler/preschooler. MILES ahead of agemates in everything but fine motor/ hand-eye tasks so any concerns I raised were summarily dismissed by our pediatrician. She said her first words a few days after 6 months old. By 7 1/2 months could identify her colors but always dropped the first sound (ie "een", "ed", "ooh", etc) and the pattern of dropping initial sounds continued as she spoke more. She used very advanced words so her articulation issues were chalked up to using complex words adults weren't expecting to hear from such a little person and then words that were too advanced for her mouth to form developmentally. In school SLP's had their hands tied by being able to only work on "grade level sounds" even of the need was clear. She makes both vowel and consonant errors and the first part of a sentence or longer is hardest to make out. Articulation problems combine with the LD issues affecting her ability to both encode and decode, use voice to text software, etc. Now it is severely affecting her socially - my absolute spitfire extrovert has become shy, reserved and socially uncomfortable with anyone she hasn't known for years. She is a musical theater kid and is now old enough for "real parts" instead of just ensemble but despite being extremely talented as an actress her speech is basically unintelligible. Kinda makes it hard to be cast in a part with lines...
So any input or experience? I have finally gotten a developmental ped to accept her into his practice and if she is diagnosed with dysarthria the neurologist will likely take a closer look to see if we can find an underlying issue. (An MRI 3 years ago was clear, as were numerous EEG's.) Everything was put on hold while we tried to get the side effects of the migraine med under control.
At some point there was a thread that discussed a 2E link between dysgraphic kids being diagnosed with eosinophilic esophogitis. This makes me think that maybe there is someone else who can relate to this crazy combination. I am thinking the dysarthria is a big clue. But to what? I have no idea. Hoping someone here may have some interesting ideas.
Thanks in advance.
