“She doesn’t realize it yet, but she is to be envied. She will never take for granted a ‘spoken word’”. She will never consider a “step” ordinary. When her child says ‘Momma’ for the first time, she will be present at a miracle, and will know it!” Erma Louise Bombeck (February 21, 1927 – April…
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AI Brings Voice To Vulnerable Children
For children on the neurological spectrum, there is a 28 time higher risk than that of typical children for suicidal thoughts or attempts. Depression was the strongest single predictor of suicide contemplation or attempts in children with autism. Penn State College of Medicine researchers New Study Finds AI Can Detect Hidden Depression in a Child’s…
Visiting The Happiest Place on Earth With Special Needs
My son was diagnosed with autism at 5. My husband and I also fall somewhere on the Sensory Processing Spectrum and I unfortunately also passed my “superpower”, anxiety disorder, on to my sweet boy. I call it my “superpower” because anxiety has made me the most organized planner and organized special/different needs mother I can…
Scientists Create Natural Sounding Speech From Brain Activity
“For the first time, this study demonstrates that we can generate entire spoken sentences based on an individual’s brain activity, This is an exhilarating proof of principle that with technology that is already within reach, we should be able to build a device that is clinically viable in patients with speech loss.” Edward Chang MD…
Apraxia Mom To Apraxia SLP
For me, speech therapy is personal. Cheryl Rowan MA, CCC-SLP, Pediatric Speech-Language Pathologist When my middle son was diagnosed with Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) in 2001, I was stunned. At that time, I was not a speech-language pathologist (SLP), so I didn’t know anything about this diagnosis, what therapy would look like, how my…
My Quiet Boy
My Journey from Practitioner to Parent to Advocate Looking back on this journey, I recall the many times I heard, “he will be fine” or “just wait and see, he will talk when he is ready” or “he doesn’t feel the need to talk because you are talking for him”. I don’t think people were…
My Jack-Attack: An Apraxia Journey
“I had feared the worst with his diagnosis including apraxia and sensory processing disorder but he is proving to me that he is one happy, very smart, successful child. ” Anne Reed, Jack’s mom, studied Psychology at Harvard University and formerly worked in Neurology research at Massachusetts General Hospital. My beautiful, loving and active son,…
Let’s Talk About Poop
“Everybody looks at their poop.” ~Oprah Winfrey Perhaps as a mom who runs a nonprofit for children where poop is a common conversation, it’s not a big deal for me. But I know it’s not like that for most so I’m going to make it easy for you and we are going to talk in…
Apraxia: A Word That Changed My World
The following is the first of a guest blog series by members of the nonprofit Cherab Foundation. “When he got sick, it was hard because he couldn’t tell us what hurt or how bad it hurt.” ~Maria Apraxia… A word that changed my world, but it also gave me answers. It gave a name to…
New Breakthrough In Understanding Apraxia
“People struggle to understand what they say, which has major negative long-term effects on their ability to form social relationships, self-esteem, academic achievements and quality of life.” MCRI speech pathologist Prof Angela Morgan Murdoch Children’s Research Institute The breakthrough isn’t just regarding the FoxP2 gene but prior to sharing the study as it includes information…
