What are you doing May 14th, for Apraxia Awareness Day?
It’s the month of May, and in my world, that means starting to think about what to do for the second annual Apraxia Awareness Day. Leading the movement is CASANA, a non-profit dedicated to Childhood Apraxia of Speech. If you are interested, they have a bunch of great ideas on how to celebrate here, at their website Apraxia Kids.
I did write to my local papers, but my favorite of all was making and seeing collages of our kids’ sweet faces and what really defines them. In addition, everyone blogging and lighting up social media was really powerful. You can read about my first ever one last year here: First annual apraxia awareness day!
It was a powerful and empowering day. I NEEDED that day. My daughter was 3 1/2, and though she was doing great, she still struggled to talk and wasn’t talking at all in school unless she was with her SLP (speech/language pathologist). Though we made a lot of gains that year, it was easy to get bogged down with what she “couldn’t” do, and what she still needed to work on. I was navigating this brave new world of social media, and one of the positives to come out of it was seeing all the apraxia superstars on the facebook support group APRAXIA-KIDS – Every Child Deserves a Voice. If you are not a member and your child has apraxia, you absolutely MUST get on this page.
The month of May I was able to see the “faces” of apraxia. Parents could share what their child could do, and not just want they couldn’t. Posts brought tears to my eyes frequently, and on the awareness day, I felt honored to be part of such a great group. A slideshow of all the pictures was made and set to music. I don’t know the song, but the lyrics were “Living in the Hall of Fame, Everyone will know your name.”
I watched it over and over, and every time I saw Ashlynn I teared up. She wasn’t living in any other hall of fame in her own part of the Earth, but here she was a hero with all the other kids.
So…I encourage all you moms of apraxia. All you warrior moms. All you worriers, sleepless nighters, criers, advocaters, non-stop tireless fighters, create a collage like this and post it to every social media at your disposal. I guarantee, you won’t be alone, and you won’t be disappointed. Bloggers from far and wide will be linking up! Find and add your link here: Apraxia Link Up Let’s see the faces of our apraxia heroes!!
