Celebrate a day for differences

There is a day for most everything now – if you visit nationaltoday.com, you’ll see that today, Friday, is National Buttermilk Biscuit Day, National Dance Like a Chicken Day, National Underground America day and National Decency Day. It is also Apraxia Awareness Day.

Count from 1 to 10 as fast as you can. Now switch the numbers 4 and 8 and see how fast you can count. For people with verbal apraxia, that is how it feels to talk. There is a motor mapping issue in the brain that makes expressive language difficult. People with apraxia can understand everything you say, but a lot of brain work goes into making a reply.

When my youngest son was born, I used a free service that Carlton County and the state of Minnesota offers to every newborn. Called “Follow Along MN,” it provided for a nurse to come to my home and check in to make sure my son was growing and that we were both happy and healthy. I also got regular questionnaires through the mail to track his developmental milestones.

Around his first birthday I had my son evaluated by early childhood specialists. I didn’t think he was babbling as much as other babies his age. I used another free service provided by the state called “Help Me Grow.” Once a referral is made, the local school district provides a screening to determine if a child is eligible for infant and toddler intervention or preschool special education services.

At that point the evaluation didn’t rise to the level of intervention but the nagging voice in my head led me to get another opinion. At 2 he was diagnosed with childhood apraxia of speech and he started attending regular speech and language therapy through Community Memorial Hospital in Cloquet.

“Help Me Grow” did another evaluation and my son has been making great progress thanks in large part to the amazing speech language pathologist at the school in Wrenshall. Services are offered on site. My son adores his therapist, and we are able to offer him the support he needs without the massive costs that private therapy would incur. We know that there is still a lot of work ahead and that students often need these services throughout their school career. But we are all made more resilient through investments in education.

These early intervention services are a precious and important part of our community’s strength, as are the young people who are participating in them.

I love that there is a day to raise awareness about apraxia but I think it is fitting that the day also falls on national “decency” day. Our brains are so incredible and there are so many different ways to take in, process, and express the information of our world. Awareness is not an action verb. We can be aware someone is different than us, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we will treat them with the respect they deserve. There are no “other” human beings. Let’s make the choice to be decent and celebrate those that are different from us.

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