This originally appeared 9/28/15 This last summer has been a whirlwind for me. Starting with meeting Ronda Rousey the end of May, my story going viral two months later, and then ending up on GMA, a national platform in which to spread apraxia awareness. Though there were many surprises, the biggest and most amazing of all was a personalized video to me and Ashlynn from Ronda herself. You can watch
Original post date appeared 9/7/15 Starting this blog, I had intended to spread awareness in my small part of the world and hopefully help some others along the way. Life is funny though, because unexpectedly, the comments from others in response to my blog ended up giving hope back to me. Today was one of those days. Started out normal. Hectic morning, trying to pack two backpacks, a diaper
So tomorrow is the culmination of my experience and chance meeting with Ronda Rousey. I honestly cannot believe my one encounter and subsequent blog post went viral and has now landed us on the national stage that is Good Morning America. When Ashlynn was dx, I remember being grief stricken that although I had tried to work with her for a year, she still remained largely silent. I remember thinking
Original appeared on 10/12/15 Oh apraxia. Oh global apraxia. I have said before if someone wanted to do a checklist on paper I could make a strong case for my daughter having autism. She doesn’t of course, but one item evaluators love is “restricted interests” or “perseverative behaviors.” If your child is demonstrating one of these then someone somewhere will start to suspect autism. Luckily for my daughter, she has
There have been critics to my Ronda story, most voicing their displeasure on how she is not a good role model for kids. She swears, has done nude photo shoots, fights people for a living, or whatever. My intention for Ashlynn is not to look at anyone’s faults or judge their decisions. My intention for Ashlynn and all the other kids out there was to see that someone not only
Ashlynn had her Kindergarten baseline test of sorts two days ago. They get data on her letter names, letter sounds, phonemic awareness skills, and number sense. I sat in the back while she sat a table with the her new teacher, looking like an official Kindergarten student. It was quiet and she was 1:1 without distractions. She named almost all of the uppercase letters correctly. I could see her really