Thanks for the advice about talking to ds's ENT about keeping some adnoid tissue. I wrote it down to discuss it with him.
Riley has nasal speech now. If the surgery goes well can we expect this to be corrected also?
Thanks

By Pamt on Monday, June 16, 2008 - 10:33 pm:

Are you sure his speech is nasal? Usually kids with large tonsils and adenoids are HYPOnasal (or denasal) and they sound like they have a cold because the enlarged tissues are blocking the space between the nose and the mouth. Kids are HYPERnasal (e.g., "nasal"--talking through their nose) when the soft palate isn't making solid contact with the posterior pharyngeal wall and air escapes through the nose. This can be an anatomical/physiological problem (e.g., cleft palate, bifid uvula, short palate) or it can be a learned habit. If Riley is truly hypernasal, then unfortunately the surgery may exacerbate it. That's definitely something to discuss with your ENT.

By Marcia on Monday, June 16, 2008 - 10:52 pm:

Pam, speaking of different speech sounds, what makes some kids speak with a "Boston Rob" accent? My youngest daughter has that accent. It's cute, but I know it bugs her that she doesn't pronounce words the same way the rest of us do. She's almost 12.

By Pamt on Monday, June 16, 2008 - 10:58 pm:

Marcia, it's because she has trouble saying her "r's." She may be able to say "r" like "rabbit" and "race" okay, but vowelized "r" like in "butter, girl, door, father, guard" are a little different. "r" is the most difficult speech sound in English to master because it is the least visible and acoustically is it very similar to "l" and "w" (which is why Asians learning English have such difficulty with those sounds---they can't hear the subtle difference since they don't have those sounds in their language. They all sound the same to them). So, your DD might benefit from speech therapy, but she'll need to be highly motivated to correct it because it will hard work and pretty darn boring. Or...as I tell a lot of older kids who only have trouble with "r"---they can always move to Boston and then it's a non issue

By Annie2 on Monday, June 16, 2008 - 11:05 pm:

Pam, that was funny!
Now that I think about it, he does sound like he has a stuffy nose when he speaks. So I guess he is HYPOnasal.
I will be sure to address this with his doctor. Thank you so much!

By Marcia on Monday, June 16, 2008 - 11:12 pm:

LOL I'll suggest that to her.
Actually, she had years of speech therapy when she was a toddler/preschooler/primary school age. This is really the last sign of any speech issue that she has, thankfully!