Walk Raises Awareness, Funds For Kids With Apraxia Of Speech

ST. PETERSBURG, FL -- When people say they're raising funds for Jerry's Kids, most people know immediately that the money is going to help children with muscular dystrophy.

And a mention of St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital instantly evokes an image of the late actor Danny Thomas holding a child battling cancer.

But substitute those illnesses with the phrase "Childhood Apraxia of Speech" and potential donors inevitably shake their heads and walk away.

It's a disorder that's little known and little understood. Nevertheless, it impacts one in 1,000 children.

Childhood Apraxia of Speech is a severe neurological disorder that makes it difficult for children to clearly and correctly produce syllables and words despite having a good understanding of language. For reasons not yet fully understood, children with apraxia of speech (praxia means movement) 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.

It usually presents itself when a child is learning to talk. As a result, a child with apraxia of speech may be misjudged and mislabeled by teachers and mistreated by other children. They may become isolated, consciously or unconsciously cutting themselves off from social situations in which they will have to speak and expose themselves to teasing and bullying.

Founded in Pittsburgh in 2000, the nonprofit Apraxia Kids is determined to raise awareness and raise funds for children dealing with this debilitating disorder.

To that end, 300 Tampa Bay children with apraxia of speech and their parents participated in the recent 2018 Tampa Walk for Apraxia at the Flora Wylie Park in St. Petersburg.

Similar walks are held across the country to heighten awareness and funding in the hopes fulfilling the organization's motto, "Every child deserves a voice."

This year's Tampa Bay walk raised a record $14,000 for Apraxia Kids. More importantly, said Tampa walk coordinator Nicole Knoph, it helped bring attention to the little-known disorder.

"Raising awareness is one of the most tangible ways that communities at large can help children with apraxia thrive," said Knoph. "Collective increased awareness means that children will be diagnosed faster, resulting in better, earlier intervention."

The walk is also a chance for children with apraxia of speech to realize they're not alone.

"The meaning of the walk is different to every single person who attends," Knoph said. "The children look forward to the walk all year as a day of fun, games, medals and new friends. The parents look forward to this day as the opportunity to support and celebrate the strength of their children."

For more information, visit Apraxia Kids.

Images via Tampa Apraxia Kids

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