Our local Childhood Apraxia of Speech walk was this past weekend!! It was such a success. We had a wonderful turnout of family, friends, and therapists to support CB! He absolutely loved the attention and the fact that all these people came out just for him. It was also so comforting that we were able to talk briefly about the meaning of the walk and why our friends and family were coming out to the walk for CB. We told him that they were coming to show their support for all the hard work he has spent this past year working on making his sounds and words. We mentioned that other kids were being recognized too for all their hard work. I mentioned that he has Apraxia and that it makes it a little harder for him to say words and make sounds. This is honestly the first time I have really told him. We have used the word Apraxia before but never provided any info around it. Also, in the past, CB would not have tolerated even hearing about it. His focus and interest was isolated to very concrete, tangible concepts that either needed to be in our immediate presence or something would be in our immediate presence within minutes. If we wanted to describe something, he would listen to 1-2 sentences. If he wasn’t interested, he would sometimes check out a few words in. As of late, we can talk about things that are weeks to months out, and he can understand that and get excited. We have been talking about Halloween with CB and HB for the last few weeks. They are both so pumped. It is awesome that it is still 2.5 weeks away and the interest and excitement has remained. Ok, I guess I will get off my tangent. We invited friends and family back to our house to continue the celebration. I hid CB’s cars the night before and the interesting thing is that he didn’t even ask about them till 1-2 days later. He typically has to have his hands on his cars within reach. Well, by hiding the cars, I think it helped keep CB more engaged. He played with his friends the whole time they were there!! It was such a special day for CB. Oh, I love that boy!!
The Childhood Apraxia of Speech walk helps raise funds for CASANA (Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association of North America). They are a great resource and have helped my family a lot on our journey. You can check out more about them at http://www.apraxia-kids.org/about-casana/.