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Minor head injury -speech delay

My question is:  Can head traumas that are supposedly "minor" cause loss of speech, or a speech disorder?  Can it cause "petit mal" staring seizures?

This haunts me. . .
I have stone floors in my house and my son (due to playing with his older sister) has fallen (apparently) backwards twice off the couch (18 inches) and hit his head on the floor - hard.  Both times my son got hurt he vomited following the incident,  both times I was in the next room so did not see the actual fall/impact, but was told by my older daughter how he got hurt and then where my son put "Elmo" our freezer "owie" pack indicated the back of his head.  

The first time I rushed him to the doctor and they said he was fine (pupil dilation, etc.), but if I wanted to I could take him to the hospital, but they did not think it was necessary (they told me just to watch him for any signs of abnormal behavior - they even told me that I didn't have to wake him during the night like I read I was supposed to do).  The second time I did not take him to the doctor because it was similar to the first time, except he vomited a bit after it happened as opposed to immediately (I thought it was because he had been crying so hard).  They odd thing (hindsight) was he was staring when he started s-l-o-w-l-y  vomiting.  
Both times happened in a row (same week).   He was about 18 months old at the time and was right on target with all his milestones  ( he was also doing "baby babble" that sounded like speech with its intonations, but it never progressed past that). (Caveat: I was then no longer was able to "trust" my older (3 year old at the time) daughter in the same room because of these accidents which now haunt me).  My son has also continued these "staring" episodes (at least one a day) since that time, although they aren't as frequent now (one every other day). I cannot honestly say whether he had  staring episodes before the falls off the couch, or if it was I just became aware of them because of watching him so much more closely.

As an aside:  My child is amazingly similar to the man who wrote in under "capnjack" (even down to the head circumference - in fact I thought at first my husband had written in to you but he didn't).  My son recently turned 3 at the end of April 2008.  He is now seeing a speech therapist three times a week for one hour.  What scares me about my son is he will say something and then never say it again.  I am being told he is autistic (per my local Early Start Program and the local school district).  I had him evaluated at UCLA but was told he was too "stressed out" to be evaluated.  I am to continue speech therapy with him and have in preschool with "typically developing peers" and then bring him back so he can be evaluated.  To CapnJack: Be careful what your school district offers your son at age 3 - my son was initially put in a class with too many children with severe behavior disorders and I had to hire an advocate to get him moved to a more appropriate class with individual speech therapy (which will be starting soon).


This discussion is related to Speech Delay.
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Avatar universal
Dear WorriedMom,

This sounds a 'Tricky' question, to answer, I do know a fair amount about Brain Injury, and Phrenology (the actual Structure of the brain), however your son's young age does complicate the issue. You say that he had a Cleft Lip and wonder if there might be a connection, to his delayed speech. My answer is I doubt it but, my answer assumes, that the Cleft Lip was the only Physical Problem. However, you say, that he only had one Kidney, so maybe, just maybe, there might have been 'Incomplete' Brain Development. That Said DON'T panic, it is highly likely that his brain WILL develop Normally, as he gets older, I would however make any 'Day-care, Nursery, Pre-School even Big School', that he attends, aware of these issues.


You don't mention any 'Potty Training' issues so, I assume, that he is 'normal'- whatever that is- in this respect. Above all, and I know that this is hard, try not to worry, too much. Your child is, almost certainly, going to be Fine- just enjoy your beautiful, undoubtedly funny/ fun loving little boy.


A Final thought- 'Potty Accidents' are NOT the 'end of the world', they are a bit more washing, that's ALL.


Sending you both my Best Wishes.


AndrewT
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Andrew, my daughter is 3.5 years old. Barely talking and not potty trained at all. When she was about 2 weeks old she tumbled out of her car seat resulting in a skull fracture. I took her to get evaluated by a psychiatrist last February and he diagnosed her with ADHD, autism, and sensory processing disorder. I just can’t shake the feeling that it may be a brain injury issue from when she tumbled. What’s your opinion? Also with her severe speech delay she doesn’t have much understanding of anything.
Avatar universal
sorry I am now seeing this so many years later.  My son had a serious head injury when he was 7 months old.  He was taking pictures at a studio and fell backwards and hit his head.  He cried at first.  I took him up and comforted him and he just stretched out in my hand.  Passed completely out. We called the ambulance and went straight to the hospital where he was released as being fine.  He slept or was unconscious for about 30 mins.  That episode has haunted me forever.  I took him to his primary care physician who said he is fine and just reacting to my screams etc.  
He is now diagnosed with autism and has to take speech therapy.  All the doctors said it is unrelated but I believe it is not.
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how is he/she now?
Avatar universal
I have a 3 and a half year old son who has a severe speech delay. He is just now starting to put 2 words together and the words he does use are very hard to understand. What concerns me and his speech therapist is he will loose words that he has been saying for months. Its like he has memory problems as well.
When he was just 6 weeks old we had a severe car accident that left everyone in the hospital. 3 of us with head injurys! He received a fractured skull and was monitored in the hospital for 3 days and released. His injury was on his forhead.
He was also born with a cleft lip and missing kidney. So we dont know if this is from the brain injury or something he was born with. We do know that its not from the cleft lip because that has been ruled out. If anyone has any suggestions  please leave a comment.
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Avatar universal
He was about 18 months old at the time and was right on target with all his milestones  ( he was also doing "baby babble" that sounded like speech with its intonations, but it never progressed past that).

At that age was he making words that made sense? Was he asking for things that he wanted? Did he ask for things using words or pointing? Here is why I ask. At 18 mos, most children are talking more than what I consider baby babble. They make words, and often put together multi word phrases. Since I don't understand what you mean by baby babble, I can't tell you whether at 18 mos his speech was normal.

If he did not lose consciousness at the time of these falls-- it is unlikely that he suffered permanent damage due to these incidents. You mention these staring episodes-- has your son been diagnosed with petit mal epilepsy?
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how is he/she now?
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