Kelly Clarkson Gets Candid About 4-Year-Old Son Remy’s ‘Frustrating’ Hearing and Speech Difficulties

Kelly Clarkson recently got candid about her 4-year-old son Remy’s “frustrating” hearing and speech difficulties revealing how the toddler has been experiencing a speech issue as of lately that has left him nine months behind in development. “He had a speech problem because he had this ear problem when he was a baby. We didn’t know,” Clarkson said during an interview with PEOPLE. “But way deep down in his ears, he got clogged up with a ton of wax where we thought, almost, he was deaf because he spoke as if he was underwater.”

She adds that it was all diagnosed though as something simple, despite him falling behind in development. “We’ve been working really hard with his speech and he’s still doing his speech therapist via Zoom,” she said. “The big milestone for us is Remy getting to really find out his own personality and his identity, because it’s been frustrating for him to not be able to really vocalize his emotion. It’s a really important thing and it’s very frustrating for them and us because we can’t communicate all the time. The fact that he’s making full sentences now and full-on engaging with us is really a blessing.”

Clarkson also spoke about what it has been like being quarantined during the coronavirus pandemic, revealing that she is “in the middle of Montana” with her husband, Brandon Blackstock, and their children — Remy, 5-year-old River Rose, and Blackstock’s 13-year-old son Seth — as well as the kids’ caretaker. “We actually took our nanny with us because I knew I would have to still work. We were very smart in bringing Allie along,” Clarkson said. The singer and talk show host then joked, “She’s probably about to drive into a lake.”

Clarkson went on to say: “The one qualification that most people don’t have to be a teacher, it’s not even the education as much as it is the patience. It’s so hard to keep your mind and emotional state together. We’re used to going to a place of business and working and then coming home and that’s your relaxed place, and that’s where you have fun. The same thing for kids [with school].”

“On top of that, we thought we were going to be here for a minute, but we didn’t know we were going to be here this long and we don’t have a home here. So we’ve been staying in a cabin. We’ve been in really close quarters and it’s been kind of nuts, I’m not going to lie,” she added. “At the end of the day, I know people who have had coronavirus and I’m just very lucky and we’re very blessed to not have been sick. We keep reminding our kids of that and we keep reminding each other of that. But we definitely have some cabin fever going on.”