“Lord woman. We need a jet airplane, a case of wine, and a few days to ourselves. We are living parallel lives.” I received this text today from a mom I have never met, but who I feel I must have known my entire life. I found her through the marvel and wonder of the internet, and in only a year’s time, I feel I know her life story….not because
I had a client recently who told me a well-meaning friend called her five year old son with apraxia “retarded.” Apparently he meant it in a “well-meaning way” asking about services, but understandably the term shocked, appalled, angered, and then saddened her. Isn’t it interesting what we all presume about a child based on nothing more than their speech? She went onto say she didn’t even correct him because at
What’s in a number? I refused cognitive testing today at Ashlynn’s school. Despite me saying I was so sure about not doing it two months ago, I still agonized over the decision until today. Today, the psychologist and myself finally had a chance to chat. She has 20 years of experience and has been working with preschool kids exclusively. She sounded smart, thoughtful, and honest. As I ran through my
Working in the schools, I often don’t have the chance to talk to parents as much as I would like. Though there are the obligatory IEP meetings, it’s not the same as being able to see the parents every week and chat about speech therapy; or better yet, having the parents right there in the session with me. To date, I have seen a little over 20 children who have
Exactly 18 months ago, I wrote one of my favorite and initially most popular posts: Lessons from a Tricycle. At that time, Ashlynn was close to 4 and still could not pedal a tricycle. I describe how we bought it a couple months before her third birthday when I was pregnant with my son. A year later, I wrote that post and explained that she STILL wasn’t able to
My friend introduced me to an AWESOME website call “The Mighty.” During the month of March, they challenged readers to write an open letter to a disability that a loved one faces. I have no idea if I’ll get accepted, but hey, at least I have a blog. For as much writing I do about apraxia, it was definitely high time to talk to apraxia myself. Hello apraxia. Hello global