Imagine waking each day knowing you won’t be understood.

Imagine having an idea you’re unable to share. Imagine being thirsty and no one understands to get you water. Imagine having a favorite food and never being able to ask for it.

This is our child. This is Charles.

Fewer than 1% of children have Childhood Apraxia of Speech, a neuromuscular condition in which there is a breakdown in oral motor planning inhibiting proper articulation of spoken language. (Don’t let the name mislead you; it is a life long condition.)

There is no special cure, no easy treatment. It is years of grueling articulation drills. It is years of practicing the motor patterns needed to make every possible language sound and the patterns in which they can be used. It is learning alternative means to replace or supplement spoken language. It is hoping this is enough.

Imagine your child making sounds. Telling you about their day but it's unintelligible. Telling you what they want to play and where they want to go, but they are incoherent. Imagine your child trying to connect to other children and being ignored for a lack of understanding. Imagine your child thirsty or hungry and fending for themselves because they can’t rely on you to know. Imagine your child screaming. And imagine them giving up.

We don’t have to, because that child is our son. That child is Charles.

Join us in walking for awareness and fundraising for individual and family support, advocacy and research.

Every child deserves a voice.