Apraxia Awareness Day May 14th---Every child deserves a voice

This coming Wednesday--May 14th is the 2nd Annual Apraxia Awareness Day (blue and white are the colors).  Childhood Apraxia: Significant impairment in motor planning (trouble getting message from brain out).  For Littlefoot this means he understands everything perfectly well, knows what he wants to do and say perfectly well, but can't get the message through to his muscles.  For him this LOOKS LIKE: limited speech (probably about 12 coherent words), trouble with running/stepping, and using sign is not always an option as his body often loses the motor planning memory.   

 There is still a lot of uncertainty about statistics and prognosis.  What we do know is early intervention---and awareness is HUGE to help these kiddos get all the help they can, in addition to reducing the stigma.  We had no clue about this until our son was diagnosed this past year, and had we known more we could have had access to resources sooner.

This is Littlefoot.  His loves worms, the color blue, Buzz Lightyear, eating peanuts, bananas, and searching for airplanes in the sky. He may not be able to sing you Twinkle Little Star, but he can dance better than John Travolta back in the 70s.   He adores both his big brother and little sister, building forts out of kitchen chairs, and giving high fives. 

Now I don't mean for this blog to be based on being the mom of a kiddo with special needs---although I LOVE those blogs.  But my blog is based on life as a therapist, and as a therapist I need my own outlet and self-care to do what I do at work.  Thus, this blog today is for ME, it's my therapy.  This past week has been an emotionally draining week in many ways, and I think I have finally come full circle with accepting that Littlefoot will need some additional help to find his voice.  That help requires multiple appointments a week, multiple use of PECS/flashcards, and countless hours doing my research.  I am determined to help be his voices, to raise my other children to be understanding of kiddos with any challenges, and to help increase supports for other families in the area. 

  I also have been disappointed to find out that in our area there no support groups for parents with a child with apraxia or dyspraxia.  There are groups for families of Autism--which for awhile Apraxia was assumed to be a part of Autism--this is partly why the statistics on the disorder are vague.  But they can be separate, and in Littlefoot's case Apraxia occurs without a Spectrum Disorder.  So Please, in efforts to help all families impacted by this--wear Blue and White on Wednesday and help spread awareness.

Stay tuned because this coming Family night will be a special addition Awareness celebration!!!  Also, because the parents that blog and tape their child's progress has been so helpful to us---I am going to start posting video clips as well.