I grew up with several speech impediments. I was told at a young age that I would never speak, never graduate, never succeed all because of my speech. I walked through the school with a picture book and learning ASL. One of my speech impediments is more than just a speech problem, it is an impediment for life, one that will never go away, Apraxia. Apraxia is a neological speech impediment that affects 1-2 in every 1000 child born. Apraxia also looks different for everyone.

For me my apraxia has changed as I have gotten older, now, I sound like I have an accent (like New York) and I mess words up with similar meanings. It is not that I am uneducated it is because the path between my head, my word processing thoughts, and my mouth are messed up. I may say Lunch when I meant to say dinner, or Day when I meant to say night. The people who I am with every day have accepted these funny little mess ups as being me, but people I meet are commonly not informed or are (some) accepting of my challenges.

Today being World Speech Impediment Day, I hope to see everyone wearing blue, in fact, anyone who wears blue and tags or sends me the picture will be below in a gallery. Show your support for all of us who suffer every day with speech impediments, and judging because of it!