I share my story to create more awareness. In the Netherlands, there are still many parents whose children have been diagnosed, but do not know what the future will bring. Jessica Huttinga, 21 years old, grew up with apraxia since preschool Hello everyone, My name is Jessica Huttinga, I am 21 years old and I…
FP Parenting Special Needs
Heavy Metals In (Just?) Baby Food
While there is a focus on infant and toddler food, heavy metal contamination, including lead, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury, is relatively common across the food supply Helena Bottemiller Evich, Policito 2021 ‘Parents Erupt Over FDA Failure To Regulate Toxic Metals in Food Lead, arsenic and cadmium are commonly found in baby foods, but also in…
Gut Bugs Talk To Your Brain
Is diet the answer to future treatments and even cures for some special needs conditions including apraxia? Research continues to turn up remarkable links between our gut bugs, also known as our microbiome, and the brain. Scientists are finding evidence that microbiome may play a role in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, depression, schizophrenia, autism, and…
Cherab FB Birthday Wishes
When you create a fundraiser, particularly for a smaller nonprofit such as the Cherab Foundation which focuses on rare causes such as apraxia, it exposes new people to those causes. While people join the Cherab Foundation for different reasons from various backgrounds and from all parts of the globe, one thing in common is every…
How music lessons can improve language skills
The power of sound, a therapy worth listening to I’ve shared a few times how my son Tanner Geng has developed an ecliptic love for music in the past few years, where outside of school he listens to music most times while doing homework, hanging out, or even all night long while sleeping. But when…
Keep Calm And Carry On For Better Behaved Kids
Study has implications for reducing harsh verbal parenting and poor child behavior. Even though this study did not go into hereditary influence or influence from interaction; nature or nurture, or focus on the father, there are implications that the greater emotional control and problem-solving abilities a mother has, the less likely her children will develop…
Summer IEP Extended School Year
Extended School Year (ESY) The start of the school year can be the time to schedule those meetings with your schools to discuss ESY. Do not let the schools jump past the ESY portion in your IEP meeting and merely tell you your child doesn’t qualify (no regression), so no need for ESY. Regression is…
Sensory Room Makeover For Special Needs
“My son is 6 nonverbal and a severe head banger, I mean right through the walls. So I renovated his room and turned it into a bedroom/sensory room and it has done amazing wonders and was not that expensive. Just thought I’d share something that works for us. Hope this helps someone. ❤” ~Tiera “In…
Ph.D. (MOM)?
“I can’t count the number of books, articles, websites, studies, etc. I have devoured on the subject of motor speech disorders, autism spectrum disorders, treatment methods, and anything remotely associated with the subject.” ~Lindsey My son Quinn’s initial official diagnosis was PDD-NOS (today known as ASD) Other dx considered at the time: -Global Developmental Disability…
Why More Should Know What Oral Apraxia Is
My son Tanner was diagnosed with both oral as well as verbal apraxia. When my son Tanner’s neurodevelopmental pediatrician, a Medical Director for Early Intervention in New York, saw Tanner for the first time at 3 years old, she shook her head and said, “I could have told you a year ago this child had severe…
