Patient of the Month
August 2009
The Division of Speech Pathology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center proudly announces Adam Weatherston as August’s Patient of the Month. Adam is a charming 3-year old, who has a diagnosis of Pierre Robin Sequence with a complete cleft palate (a small opening in the roof of the mouth) and laryngomalcia.
As a newborn, all before the age of 5 weeks, Adam underwent videofluoroscopic swallowing studies and surgery (mandibular distraction) to increase the size of his lower jaw and surrounding tissues and pull his tongue forward to help resolve his feeding difficulties. After his release from the hospital, Adam was followed as an outpatient by the High Risk Infant Clinic and by speech pathologist, Ann Clonan, to help improve his feeding and swallowing. Since 2007, Adam has been receiving speech therapy from Marsha Lee-White, a speech pathologist at the Mason Campus.
In August of 2007, at the age of 13 months, Adam was referred for speech and language assessment and treatment due to his limited sound repertoire. Initially, Adam was able to produce “me”, “ma ma”, and “meh meh.” Throughout many therapy sessions and home activities, which had been provided to the parents over the course of Adam’s treatment, Adam’s words and speech sounds have increased. Now, shortly after his 3rd birthday, Adam has developed age appropriate expressive and receptive language skills!
Adam and his family have been strongly committed to his treatment since the beginning. His family is willing to do whatever it takes to assist Adam in the development of his communication. Due to vocal resonance issues that make some of his speech sounds difficult to understand, Adam will continue to be followed by the physicians in ENT, Plastic Surgery, Genetics, and the Craniofacial Anomaly Team, as well as by speech pathologists.
Today, the Weatherston family has a very verbal 3 year old, who is able to tell you what he wants, what he doesn’t want, make jokes, and communicate in much the same way as other children his age. Adam is a shining example of a therapy success!
Adam ’s hard work and enthusiasm in therapy are the reasons he has been nominated for patient of the month. Congratulations Adam!
