Our Nephew, Ben

I have one of the cutest, most loving nephew's out there. Actually, we are lucky because all of our nieces and nephews are pretty amazing but I may be biased.

However, right now I want to talk a little about Ben. He is such a cute kid. His parents were excited to know they were having another child. Ben seemed like a needy child. He always wanted to be held, be close to someone. Knowing him now, I believe it is because of his loving nature.

Ben loves to play with other kids. He loves his family. One of my favorite things is to watch how excited he gets when Sammi or any other cousin comes to play. I love when he runs over to give me a hug.

Ben is a little older than Sammi. Sammi started making noises, sounds, and speaking what is considered about average for her age. Ben would make a few noises but really struggled when it came to forming sounds and words. I know it was hard for his parents, especially to hear Sammi ask for things and express herself and not have Ben do the same.

After a lot of stressing, worrying, tests, and doctors' visits, he has been given a preliminary diagnosis of Childhood Apraxia of Speech. "Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a motor speech disorder that first becomes apparent as a young child is learning speech. For reasons not yet fully understood, children with apraxia of speech 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. Apraxia of speech is sometimes called verbal apraxia, developmental apraxia of speech, or verbal dyspraxia. No matter what name is used, the most important concept is the root word “praxis.” Praxis means planned movement. To some degree or another, a child with the diagnosis of apraxia of speech has difficulty programming and planning speech movements. Apraxia of speech is a specific speech disorder. This difficulty in planning speech movements is the hallmark or “signature” of childhood apraxia of speech." (www.apraxia-kids.org)

Ben says very little. There are stories of success and hope that one day he will speak like other kids.  However, there are some stories with a different outcome. Whatever happens in Ben's life, I know that he will be loved and he will be giving love to others because that is the kind of boy he is.

I hope Ben and his parents know how much they are loved and I want to do what I can to help so I wanted to share a little with you and ask that if you can help, go to www.apraxia-kids.org to learn and help.

The easiest way to donate to the group is to shop through Amazon using this link. Please help as they continue to search for ways to help these kids looking for ways to best express themselves.