To celebrate and create awareness for Better Hearing and Speech Month, we are featuring one of our patient success stories. Five-year-old, Isaiah Patron, began treatment with Marquette General Therapies when he was 3 because he had poor intelligibility, meaning everyone was having a very hard time understanding him.
“When Isaiah first came to us, he was pretty much speaking in only vowels,” stated Gayla Rovelsky, SLP, a Speech-Language Pathologist for Marquette General Therapies. “He had normally developing language – meaning he could understand what was being said to him and he could also express what he wanted in age appropriate utterances – but the actual sounds of his speech, called articulation, were very poor and made his speech sounds like gibberish or jargon.”
Isaiah began treatment for Developmental Apraxia of Speech, a condition where a child’s motor planning for speech sounds and putting speech sounds together isn’t quite right. Isaiah is still attending speech therapy two times per week. His mother reports “When Isaiah first began speech therapy, it was hard for us to communicate with him and understand his needs. Now, I can understand my child so much better and he can communicate with us. This makes me feel successful as a parent. It’s very rewarding.”
The “wait-and-see” approach to children who talk late is a result of misconceptions about typical language development. “All children develop at their own pace” is another common phrase parents come across when looking for an explanation for a child’s delayed development. While children do develop at their own pace to some extent, there are certain milestones which should be reached by a specific age. Even normally developing kids can have difficulties with speech and language. It’s always better to seek professional advice earlier rather than later.
Gayla Rovelsky is a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP), who provides evaluations and treatment for children and adults with speech and language disorders communicate more effectively. Sometimes this might mean helping a child pronounce and express words more clearly or it could mean helping an adult who recently had a stroke communicate with ease or be able to swallow without difficulty. Gayla graduated with Summa Cum Laude honors with her Bachelor’s Degree in Speech Language and Hearing Sciences from Northern Michigan University and obtained her Master’s Degree in Communicative Sciences and Disorders from Michigan State University.
For more information or to schedule an appointment with Gayla Rovelsky, SLP, contact Marquette General Therapies at 906-225-5900 or visit us at www.uprehab.com