Girl With A Funny Accent

I promised this blog post awhile ago, as a grandparent is struggling with their 6-year old grandchild with Apraxia who gets upset when not understood: Why am I talking, yet no one can hear me? No one can understand me? Am I not talking loud enough? Or are others just not able to get me? At Six Years Old, I was 95% unintelligible. One year later, I'd finally be able to say my name 'Alyson' clear enough that others would understand me. So, when it comes to understanding a child's frustration with the inability to communicate, I may be able to shed some light.  The frustration is unreal, indescribable, and unnerving. Of constantly talking-or trying to talk-yet not being understood.  Ever call someone on the phone with poor phone signal? There's brief frustration, right? You give up, yell that you'll call them back, sigh, and hang up.  Luckily for you that frustration is brief.  For a young child with Apraxia, that frustration is constan

My name is Sara Taylor, Alyson’s younger sister. I am 18 years old, which makes a 6-year difference between my sister and I. Unlike my sister, I do not have Apraxia. Our parents were fair between my sister and I, despite our clear differences, but it’s still not easy balancing between two children yet alone two children of different capabilities.   My parents did a fair job keeping my sister and me as equals. But, also my sister and I grew up in slightly different times. Alyson grew up in the nineties and Apraxia was not a medically recognized speech disorder. There were no blogs, nor walks to connect to other families, and there were no Facebook pages either. No sense of community or thoughts that anyone else was dealing with this same problem. Even though these deficiencies may have been harder on my parents, it actually worked to my benefit (in a weird sort of way). I was oblivious to my sister's disorder until probably I was about 13 years old. By then I knew the word ‘A