United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

My grandson, Matthew, is 3 years old and has LOBPI. He cannot yet speak in complete sentences and that concerns me quite a bit. Have any other parents experienced this with their child? Is this one of the affects of BP? He only speaks the last word of a sentence and since we're with him and looking at him we understand what he's saying. Any help will be appreciated.

My daughter non BPI had the same issue, she was five till she spoke, her is what we had to do, we had to stop from interpreting her words and half sentences and make her talk. Finally she did and now 8 years later she won't stop. Take the child to a speech therapist and make sure there is not something else wrong, but when we took my daughter, they told us it was because.....she was the last baby(TILL I MET MY HUSBAND) and that we let her be like that, then when Brandon (my son with BPI) was born, I did not have the time or energy to fight her, because I was to busy fighting for Brandon so we just gave her what she wanted......she was the baby, her brother and sister were 5 and 9 years older, so they just did what she said, even though she didn't say it. And when I met my husband he just thought it was cute. I don't know if there are other children in the house, but this could be the problem. It took about a week to get her to speak, but it was worth the effort....I think!!! LOL
GAYLE mom of Brandon 11 ROBPI
PS Brandon my child with OBPI was talking at 2 in full and complete sentences because we had to fight his older sister so much !!!


Message was edited by: brandonsmom

Have you had his diaphram function tested? Is he getting speach therapy? It could also be weak trunk strength. This all affects speech.

Hi Brandonsmom,
I think you may be right, we do tend to interpret his words and sentences so we're going to try what you suggest. I was just worried because I thought this might be one of the effects of BP although I don't see how it could be. Thank you for your response.

Hi Joseph,
Are the things you mentioned related to BP? We have not had him tested for any of these but I'll certainly do some research on it. He is not getting speech therapy at this time but we'll mention it to his doctor and see what he suggests. Thanks for your response.

I had delayed speech too because I am the youngest of 4 & in the 1940's era everyone finished my sentences before I could get it out. You'd NEVER know it now...LOL

Carolyn J
LOBPI adult/71 & proud of it!

The things I listed above do affect my son. I think it's C-4 that can have an affect on the diaphram. My son has a hard time with volume of his voice and saying a sentence with more than four words. He has to stop and take a deep breath. He has week truck as well which does affect the strength in his jaw and then that affects his speech. He is doing well with his speech therapy though. He's starting to speek better than my 5 yr old (he just turned 3). He goes to hippotherapy where he rides a horse for an hour while doing his speech. It really helps. The horses movements give him sensory stimulation and also the rythms of the horse make him have to work his back and stomach muscles to keep balanced on the horse.

Joseph -- same thing happened with Maia and I got her lots of whistles and horns to play around with when she was young and the very best thing for her was getting her into the choir the very second she was old enough to be accepted. Now she's in the synagogue choir -- she gets to sing 2-3 times a week for an hour at a time. And she's also in a rock and roll choir for 1 hour a week. You'd be so surprised at how much this helped her. She's off all breathing meds! (At one point she was on many different types of steroids, etc.) It increased her breathing range so much that she was able to take on an exercise training program at the YMCA this past summer for an hour -- and she can drum for 1 1/2 hours straight (drumming is very aerobic).

I urge any child who has diaphragm issues to SING SING SING !!!

Once you can get the disphragm strengthened, then you can work on the trunk and the legs and everything else....and the entire range of endurance changes.

There are still issues - her immune system is still something she has to battle for -- but just the fact that she was able to increase her endurance has been a blessing for her. She can keep up better with the other kids now.

Momof5,
You are WELCOME !!! I always mention this because alot of times people do not even realize that they are doing it, we didn't I know that for a fact and when people realize it makes is easier to understand. Keep us posted and let us know how he is doing.
Gayle