Dear Friends,

Welcome to February! Spring is a short 50 days away and we will be kicking off Apraxia Awareness Month in just three months. Apraxia Kids has so much to look forward to this spring and our newsletter this month highlights some of those initiatives. We encourage you to share this information with your SLP and families in your community who have a CAS diagnosis and who might not have found Apraxia Kids yet.

With your support each year, Apraxia Kids works to create new resources for our families and professionals based on the needs expressed by our community. Our Parent Portal in 2022 and our IEP Roadmap in 2023 have made a significant impact for our families, allowing them to further their education about CAS and become a better advocate for services as their child enters school. Thanks to your support, we continue to find innovative ways to help serve the apraxia community. Stay tuned for the unveiling of our next big resource coming later this month!

Later this month, registration for our 2024 Walk for Apraxia season will open! Without the continued support of each of you, our Walks would not be possible nor would the increasing number of programs and services provided by Apraxia Kids. We invite you to register for your local Walk for free when it opens and invite your friends, family, SLP, and anyone else you might know to join in spreading awareness and celebrating our incredible Apraxia Stars! We offer a variety of fundraising ideas to help you support the mission of Apraxia Kids, all while earning our fun incentive prizes. In addition, sponsorship opportunities are available for all of our Walks, as well as volunteer opportunities to help plan the event. Visit our Walk for Apraxia Home Page for more details on how you can get involved.

We continue to plan for our National Conference, taking place July 11-13th in our hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Did you know that 2024 marks the 20th anniversary of our National Conference? We hope you will join us this July to not only celebrate this significant milestone but also take part in what we believe will be an extraordinary educational experience. Registration will open in March, so keep an eye out for more information in the coming weeks. Apraxia Kids will once again be offering a limited number of financial scholarships to aid families who may not otherwise be able to access this valuable learning opportunity. The conference scholarship application is open now until February 25th, with decisions coming prior to the opening of registration.

Apraxia Awareness Month kicks off May 1st, but there are many things you can do right now to prepare! Visit our Proclamations webpage to fill out a form to file a proclamation in your area to declare May 14th Apraxia Awareness Day! You can also order one of our Be the Voice kits to spread awareness in your local community or fundraise to support our cause. Together we can raise our voices, spreading awareness about childhood apraxia of speech and Apraxia Kids!

Without your support, Apraxia Kids would not be able to achieve our vision of every child with CAS finding their voice. Together, we can further our mission to serve more families and educate more professionals. We hope you will continue to share our resources with a new family or SLP, join us for one of our upcoming events, and spread awareness this May! Your continued support allows us to make a difference in the lives of children with CAS. We thank you for your continued commitment.

Warmest Regards,
Angela Grimm