Yesterday morning, Milo and I went to Veteran’s Memorial Park in Union Township for a very special event: Truman’s Trek and Trot, Cincinnati’s Walk for Children with Apraxia of Speech. You see, we know this guy named Chase. He’s 3 years old, only 3 months older than Milo, and he is a funny and crazy and has the best laugh. He is developmentally appropriate in every way, except he has apraxia of speech. Oh, and he has the BEST untamed red hair.
The Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association of North America (CASANA) defines apraxia of speech as “a motor speech disorder that first becomes apparent as a young child is learning speech. For reasons not yet fully understood, children with apraxia of speech have great difficulty planning and producing the precise, highly refined and specific series of movements of the tongue, lips, jaw and palate that are necessary for intelligible speech.” In many cases, people don’t know about apraxia of speech until they meet someone who has it, and many insurance policies do not cover the therapies that help these children learn to speak. This is why we gathered on a chilly, overcast morning…to raise awareness and support those children who are trying to find their voice.
I wasn’t sure what to expect in attending this walk as I knew it would be smaller than some of the big, well-known walks I’ve participated in before. I was pleasantly surprised to see that over 500 people were in attendance, and I was ecstatic to learn that the participants had raised over $27,000! What a great day!
I have been friends with Chase’s mom for a couple of years now, so I have witnessed many of her struggles in being a mom of a child with apraxia of speech. I have seen the heartbreak in her eyes as she comforts a screaming boy who is so frustrated because he can’t express what he wants. I’ve heard the heartbreak in her voice as she talks about other parents pulling their children away from playing with Chase because he expresses himself physically instead of verbally (which manifests itself in many different ways). Not to mention all the behind-the-scenes work of phone calls to insurance companies, finding the right therapies, paying for medical services, finding the right schools, etc. Watching this family grow (and flourish) is a resounding reminder that we should never be quick to judge others. We don’t know what a family, or even a single child, is going through.
As I stood in line with Milo to get a balloon animal, I looked around at the 500 plus people talking, dancing, playing games, and eating treats. I was honored to be with such a caring group of people, but I also reflected on how lucky I was to be a mom to a normally-developing, healthy child. (This fact is generally not lost on me as I worked at a children’s hospital for 8 years, but it is definitely easy to take it for granted in everyday life.) I looked around at all of those smiling faces and realized that there was also a lot of pain and sacrifice in this crowd. I hope that I, in some small way, was acknowledging and supporting each and every one of these families that just want their children to develop to their full potential.
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