I wish I could give you an answer to this.I am still new to Moya Moya.My 4 year old daughter also had a "mini"stroke in December of 2005 which also took out her entire right side.However hers came back within 20-30 minutes.Now she has some weakness with her right hand & leg & we have been told that she will more than likely need physical therapy to prevent permanent damage.Is your daughter in any type of physical therapy for this??I am sorry that I can't offer you any more info and I hope that she gets better.Kids are so tough and don't let things keep them down for long.
Take care & I wish you & your family all the best.
Jennifer

Avril,  It sounds liek your daughter is doing pretty well.My daughter had  severe strokes at 5 yrs old.She lost all use of her left side and had a weakened right side.She was like an infant.That's great that your daugheter's leg is a;ready coming back, it was about a year before Kathleen was able to walk again.We spent a month in a rehab hospital, and she gets a lot of therapy every week.She gets 3 PT,4 OT and 5 speech every week.Kathleen also has Down Syndrome so she had delays before the strokes.I'm happy to say that even after 4 yrs her recovery continues.she is wlaking with the help of an AFO on her left leg and an SMO on her right foot(braces to stabalise).In fact she's gettting pretty fast.Her left arm and hand is very slow coming back and she may not get everything back but I will never give up hope because there's always so amny new therapies and she continues to get stronger even though it's very slow.She has movement at ehr shoulder and some at her elbow,she can concentrate very hard,and open her hand and close it.We're doing Electrical stimualation right now, and I'm hoping to do a very modified version of constraint therapy.Basicall restraining her right hand(assuming she'll tolerate it I wouldn't want to get ehr upset) and having her "play" with her left starting with things that she can definatly succeed at.Kathleen's speech is coming back too,she is putting sentences together more spontainioulsly but still needs helpw with word recall.After the stroeks she couldn't even put together a 2 piece puzzle and now she's reading writting and doing simple math.Things that could have been difficult for her even without the strokes.If I can answer any specific questions just feel free to ask away.YOu can e-mail me direct too at mgrace5@nycap.rr.com I hope your daughter's recovery continues and she gets stronger every day.
Mary Grace

My daughter had a stroke at 18 mos and lost the strength in her right arm and leg and face.  After months of OT she was right back on schedule.  The only after effect of the stroke (she is now 15) was she learned to be left handed.  Luckily she was diagnosed this year with MM and we now have hope that surgery will prevent the TIA's and another stroke.  This website is very helpful.  Good luck and know that small children have the ability to adapt and re-learn a lot better and faster than adults.

Avril,

My daughter had several strokes at age 8, the day after her first surgery for MM.  SHe lost her speech, ability to swallow, and the use of her entire right side (and she's right handed).  We went to a rehab hospital, and three years later, she's back, but still has some weakness on the right side, and some word finding trouble.

The one thing they told me that helped in the hospital, with regards to her getting her speech back was this: there are two areas in your brain which control your communication.  One controls your ability to speak, and one controls your ability to understand speech, both your own and what is said to you.  The second is much harder to recover - the ability to speak much easier.  My daughter wasn't able to speak for a while, but would follow commands (blink, give me a        up, etc).  Once she started following commands, they all breathed a sigh of relief and told me not to worry.  If the ability to understand comes back, it's only a matter of time before the ability to speak comes back.  They were right for my daughter, but it was so hard to wait!!

Don't worry.  Just keep doing what you're doing, and have faith!

We're keeping you in our prayers!!

Kristen

It was a few weeks later that she started to be able to say a few words at a time, but it was probably a year before she could actually speak enough to communicate on her own.  It will be three years this coming November, and she's still getting speech therapy pretty intensely, as she can still have trouble finding words, and it can be very frustrating.

But remember, my daughter is only one example.  Everyone's brain is different, and will recover at their own pace. 

The other thing the doctor's told me with regards to speech, is that they've seen children who have been able to (and mind you, this was explained to me in very non-technical terms!) move their entire speech center to a different area of the brain, if the area of their brain that normally controls speech was injured beyond recovery.  It's amazing what the brain can do - noone can totally predict how it will react/recover from stroke!

So, have faith and give it some time!!  Believe me, I know how hard the waiting is, but thankfully you have your MM family to lean on!!

Good luck!  I hope that helped!

Kristen