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
I can’t remember a time since I learned to write that I stopped writing. I was the girl with diaries, journals, writing pads, and notebooks filled with writing. Obviously now, I continue to write. There was a time though my writing was noticeably absent. I recently scoured my notebooks and old blogs searching for what I wrote around the time of Ashlynn’s diagnosis and came up empty. I had many
There have been times in my career that I have instantly connected with kids I first meet. Usually, time is spent building trust and rapport, which would be expected really. However, there are rare times when the connection is instantaneous. The first time this happened to me was with a Kindergarten boy who had apraxia. He was nonverbal, anxious, and highly sensitive. I had just come off of maternity leave,
Apraxia is a journey. Speech apraxia is a journey, but global apraxia? Even MORE SO. So many skills to work on. So many things to improve. So many negative prognostic indicators to plow through. The good news is that Ashlynn doesn’t know anything about prognostic indicators. She doesn’t know how heavily loaded she is in the negative column. Not yet anyway. When I first had her receive services she was
I was finally able to make a new game for my kiddos with enough time to spare for St. Patrick’s Day! This game follows the same idea as my other repetitive games. Kids have a game board, in this case, a black pot: The kids draw a card from the card deck. If the card contains a shamrock with gold coins, the child collects the amount of coins
Cognitive testing, psychological evaluation, IQ, psychologist, neuropsychologist. What do all these have in common? What do they have to do with a child who has a speech delay? What does it matter? Tests of intelligence, commonly referred to as “cognitive” testing in the schools, are standardized measures usually administered to children as part of a complete battery of testing a child will receive when being considered for special education services