Girl With A Funny Accent

I'm not sure how else to describe the Apraxia Journey. I'm sure parents reading this would agree with the sentiments of this title.

I see it all the time, with a child learning how to say 1 new word perfectly and then reverting the next week to not being able to say it.

Frustrating, right?

Your child starts to make new friends at school and finds their words, perhaps not the best pronunciation, but that is alright! As soon as they start putting themselves out there, they find a new bully that challenges such happiness.

Annoying much!

I even see it with older children and young adults too. Even recently, with a post written by a concerned Mom of a college student. This college student has reminiscent effects of Apraxia and was ostracized in a school group project. Under the premise that the other kids didn't want "the special needs one to mess anything up."

Even more frustrating!

Here's a young man clearly qualified and studious to attend college, yet his work…

My parents were told by three ultrasounds I would be a boy. My mom had visions of having a football quarterback star and my Dad envisioned extra mechanical help.

    These daydreams were silenced when they head, "It's a Girl!"

    Ok, a girl. Not really what they perfectly envisioned, but acceptable. New 'perfect' visions were created-she'd be a lawyer, she'll go to college, and she'll be famous.

    These visions were silenced when they heard, "She has Apraxia."

  With years of hard work from my parents and myself as well as our supporters, we were able to re-gain hope that we'd make it through. We were able to re-find those 'perfect daydreams' of the future. Sure, we've realized I have to do it with an 'accent,' but we still fought hard for those 'perfect daydreams.'

   Ah, the 'perfect daydreams.'

   I may not be a mother, so my experience is based on conversations with the women in my life and t…

Shout out and kudos to all the Dads out there doing the best they can do.

Raising a child is hard, fatherhood does not come with instructions, and throw in Apraxia well there's definitely not a parenting handbook for that!


Now, I know I haven't blogged about this yet, but my father played a pretty significant role in my journey and made challenging sacrifices. 
As you guys know, I was diagnosed with Apraxia at the age of 3. From Day 1 of my diagnosis, I recall my Dad driving 30+ minutes each way to get me to speech therapy, three times a week until I was 16 years old. 
Being an only child, two parents that worked full-time, driving between therapy sessions, and attending after-school daycare. It was hard, even typing it out the schedule confuses me. 
I don't even know how they did it. 
Now, also throw in the fact that my academics in elementary school were not spectacular. Homework took me hours to complete and I could never finish it all at daycare, so I'd go home and…

During a softball game, just a couple days actually, a few of my throws back to pitcher were not the best. The umpire standing beside me said snarkily, "Your throwing is pretty bad."

To which, I retorted, "After Special-Ed P.E, that 'bad' throw is a blessing."

Defensively, he backed off saying, "Okay, okay, okay sorry."

For some strange reason, people change their tune when I make any mere reference to my 'special' background. The fact that I look like a 'normal' adult must mean I have no issues, right?

Frankly, if we knew back in the nineties what we know now, I would 100% be diagnosed with dyspraxia. Physical coordination struggles were just terrible; I couldn't throw a ball more than 5ft until I was a much older child. My coordination has improved as an adult, but I still get my 'hiccups.' One of them being; I can't walk and drink at the same time. Not even from a straw! I even feel my mind doing cartwheels when …

As a lifeguard, I was trained to see if a swimmer, even a bad swimmer, was making forward movements. If they were, then they did not need to be rescued. 
But if they were vertical and quit making forward progress, then they could potentially be drowning and we must prepare to save them. 
I can't help but to think that is what life is. As long as there's forward progress, no matter how slowly, a person will be alright. But sometimes, there's a complete stop in forward movement. When that happens we all must recognize the signs to jump in and save them, perhaps even from themselves.