Girl With A Funny Accent

None of us decide to have Apraxia. We don't decide to purposefully be speech-delayed, school-delayed, or physically-delayed. You didn't get to decide to have a child with Apraxia either. No one decided to go down this path. Nor would anyone voluntarily want to. And as much as we wish we could have decided, we simply just cannot. We can't click buttons and customize a child; what they'll be like, their strengths, etc. If that were the case, we all would choose to have or even be the perfect human being. As you guys know, that's just not feasible. Despite this lack of choice in the beginning, we do have one other capability. We can decide how to act, react, cope, and treat. I was watching a Facebook video and this gentleman, diagnosed with cancer, said something interesting. He said, and I am paraphrasing, that life is a card game. We can't choose our deck, but we must learn how to play them. With that, I thought of two things: One, that I love a

How does one learn, or even find the motivation to learn, how to read and write when they cannot even speak their respective language? Seriously, it sounds impossible. It feels impossible, but I am here to assure each and every one of you it CAN be done. I struggled initially in school, especially the Elementary School days, in essentially every subject taught.  However, with reading and writing it very slowly became one of my academic strengths. On top of the school teachings and homework, I had a reading and writing tutor. We would always have those academic workbooks and we would do extra-studying and extra-practicing of the material. Even during summer vacations! The horror, I tell you! On a total side-note: Academic work for those with Apraxia always entails doing "extra work" to only be half as good. I am sure those reading this can agree. If you don't, well tell that to the bags permanently under my eyeballs. Anyways, it was always extra wor

You have the reminiscent effects of a speech disorder, but for some crazy reason everyone around you is asking where your accent comes from. When you're a kid, how confusing is that? Is this speech of mine an accent, or is it a disorder? What the heck is a disorder anyways? If everyone says it sounds like an accent, it must be an accent right? That's cool, right? I was in Elementary School and verbal, but attending Speech Therapy often to practice articulation and those dreaded R-sounds. However, one day on the playground, a couple kids asked me where I was from. This was the very first experience I recall being asked about my accent. I told them I was from California, but I suppose that answer wasn't acceptable. "No," they continued, "Where are you really from? You have an accent..." I responded, "I'm from California." Except, I pronounced it more like, 'Califuhnia.' Even an adult supervisor nearby heard and sta

    Why are we so afraid of failure? Not of our own failure, but of our children's? I don't have a child, of course we all know this, but I sometimes find myself more worried about my younger sister's  failures than I am my own.     We are so afraid of other people failing because we know how much it sucks . Each and every one of us has failed miserably at some point in our lives, no matter how huge or how small. We recognize the struggle, the frustration and the overall feeling of disappointment.    I'll be honest, I've failed in numerous areas. I technically never 'passed' speech therapy and I've failed countless exams: A spelling test [I got 19 wrong out of 20], an Economics Exam I actually studied for [I got 0/100], and my AP Spanish Exam in High School. I felt like a failure when I crashed my brand new car against a wall [Whoops]. I failed miserably at a Swim Meet too.     Now before you think it's "just swimming," you must u