Case Study – 8 – Speech and Communication Issues

Our first child was a full-term baby born through normal delivery with a birth weight of 2.9kg at birth. There were no significant delays in his developmental milestones till 3years of age, except for his communication skills and language production. We didn’t notice this difficulty because we heard that it is normal to have children with delays in speech till 3 years. But my husband was bothered about his behavioral changes therefore we decided to consult a doctor in Palakkad. It was seen that he had a delay in play skills, lack of speech production with decreased eye contact and name call response.

Following this, we went for therapy in our hometown. But we were not satisfied with the improvements seen in the child. We as a family decided to go in search of other centres in Kerala that could provide him with better treatment and care. Eventually, we came to know about Jewel Autism Centre, Kottayam is known to be one of the best therapy centre in Kerala. As I came to the centre, a detailed assessment was taken by the professionals. They clearly explained my child’s problems and were considerate enough to listen to all my concerns. One of my major concerns was to reduce his self sounds like whistling sound, because it was very difficult to handle while taking him for shopping or outing.

His Occupational Therapy sessions were taken by Miss. Jomol. She was very sincere in her profession and gave needful solutions and valuable comments which I highly appreciate of her as a therapist.

CLINICAL FINDINGS AND OBSERVATION BY THERAPIST

The child attended  Occupational Therapy sessions for 1hr session×5 days /week. I started out with activities to improve his eye contact and name-call response. Activities like swings, obstacle courses, and visual tracking were introduced. One major concern of his parents was self sound production. To address this, I started with auditory input (reciprocating child’s sound, manipulating sounds with different sounds and frequency, music on headphones of different tunes and rhythm).

A detailed home program was given for the child. With continuous therapy sessions, significant improvements were seen in the child. He was able to perform activities without making any self sounds. I would like to thank the child’s mother who was really hard working and motivating throughout the intervention process for the child. With her mutual understanding and by being a regular at-home program, the child was able to perform activities effectively to a greater extent.

JOMOL JOY (BOT)

Department of Occupational Therapy