Reid is a wonderfully fun, very loving little guy who has a pretty severe case of Childhood Apraxia of Speech. Apraxia is a relatively rare neurological disorder where the brain knows what it wants to say, but the message gets mixed up on its way to the mouth. It’s a motor-planning disorder that presents very similarly to what can happen after an older adult had a stroke. Reid works very hard at speech therapy 5 times each week to learn to talk. He is making great, albeit very slow, progress toward verbal speech.
Since Apraxia is so rare and because people often associate lack of verbal language with significant cognitive delays (which is not the case with Reid or with most Apraxics), it is important to Reid’s mom to spread the word about the disorder. The Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association of North America (CASANA) is having an event to do just that. The Walk for Children with Apraxia is a 1.5 mile family friendly walk that will take place on October 17th in Pittsburgh. There are 12 other similar walks occurring around the country as well. CASANA is a non-profit organization that works to raise awareness about Apraxia and also supports the research necessary to better understand Apraxia and determine what therapy strategies are most effective.
My nephew’s walking team, Reid’s Rockstars, would like to raise as much money as possible to support this cause. That’s where this contest comes in.
To enter, please visit Reid’s team website (www.apraxia-kids.org/pittsburghwalk/reid ). You’ll see that the Twincredible Twosome and I are already signed up…we can’t wait! But, we wanted to do more. So, please click on “General Team Donation” and consider donating to support CASANA. You get one entry into the contest per $3 donation (since Reid is 3 years old). For each $3 increment you donate, please leave a separate comment on this post. (Example, donate $9, leave 3 comments, earn 3 entries)
Winners will be determined by random.org and I will contact winners via e-mail. Please leave a valid e-mail address when you make your comment. The first winner will receive the Godiva certificate and the second will receive the restaurants.com certificate. The contest will close on October 16th at midnight and the winners will be drawn whenever the Twincredible Twosome wake me up that following morning.
Feel free to send me an e-mail with any questions and pass on this site and this contest to your friends!
Let’s see how many people we can get to support this very worthwhile cause and help my nephew’s team to meet their fundraising goal. Thanks!
