11/05/2026
May is Apraxia Awareness Month!
We would love to share a post from one of our participant's mum.
"Good morning to our lovely community 💙
I began Apraxia Awareness Month by sharing a post explaining the disability. I followed it up with a video giving insight to the lives of those who live with it, and today as promised I am sharing what we can do when we meet someone with speech difficulties in the community.
Top 3 things to know:
- Always assume competence until known otherwise, my son may be hard to understand but he understands EVERYTHING. CAS is a motor planning disorder not intellectual.
- Many use signs and gestures to substitute difficult words i.e "my favourite colour is *points to colour*".
- It is OK to ask questions, it is welcomed, understanding comes from knowledge and if we don't ask we don't learn.
Top 3 tips to assist successful communication:
- Be a detective! Ask who what where when and how questions to gain context, put the clues together and you'll put together the sentence they are trying to communicate.
- If you don't understand please just say so, everyone has the right to a voice and while you may be well intentioned and trying to avoid embarrassing the speaker, it actually diminishes their right to the voice they are fighting to have.
- Patience is key! It can be extremely frustrating for the speaker but also for the listener. Everyone is doing their best and communication break downs are frustrating, it requires patience and persistence on both ends.
Top 3 No No's:
- Do not pretend to understand if you don't!
- Do not mimic someone's speech, even if they are young and you assume it's 'baby talk'. You are inadvertently mocking them and this really hurts their feelings. Speaking from experience of my toddler being mimicked by adults as they assume its cute baby talk when in fact he is trying 100% to communicate a need or thought.
- Do not take your children away from those with differences due to fear of your child asking questions or making statements about the differences. This presents learning opportunities for all. Rather you can say "I'm not sure, let us ask together" or ask what you can do to support inclusive play.
I hope my posts spark your curiosity and encourage you to initiate learning about differently abled members in our community. 😁"
