5 Things to Know for Apraxia Awareness Day on May 14

As I sit here and think about the fifth annual Apraxia Awareness Day, I think about my life as a speech-language pathologist and a mother to a child with a severe speech and language disorder. My daughter has resolving apraxia, but still deals with a significant expressive and receptive language processing disorder at 7 years old. I want to talk to you not as an SLP, but as a mom to a child who has this severe speech and language disorder and tell you why Apraxia Awareness Day—coming up on May 14—is so important to parents in the apraxia community and how we as SLPs can get involved. Acceptance and community: As SLPs, we can use Apraxia Awareness Day to share details about this disorder with colleagues, friends and families in our care. As a mother, this day presents the chance to celebrate our children’s victories and show the world we are proud of them. The more conversations we start about apraxia, the greater the opportunities to exchange ideas and promote research and discovery. Education or re-education for professionals: For most parents, awareness means creating a larger community of professionals who acknowledge and understand childhood apraxia of speech (CAS)—how to recognize and diagnose it. I can’t begin to even explain how disheartening it is for a parent to educate a “professional” in their life about CAS. I’ve experienced more than one parent share how they knew more than their original SLP and had to seek help from an apraxia exper...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - Category: Speech Therapy Authors: Tags: Speech-Language Pathology Childhood Apraxia of Speech Language Disorders Speech Disorders Source Type: blogs