Spotlighting a speech disorder

BERLIN HEIGHTS — Taylor Opfer wants to inform others about her daughter's diagnosis and an awareness event. Opfer's daughter, Tess, 3, was diagnosed with apraxia, a disorder that makes it difficult to send signals from the brain to the mouth to make speech movements. Individuals with the disorder will have difficulty speaking and need practice to understand these movements. "They know exactly what they want to say but those things are not coming out of their mouth in a way that we can understand," Opfer said. Opfer said this disorder is considered rare, according to most reports. While attending a conference, she saw awareness shirts saying 1 in 1,000. The first time Opfer noticed something was wrong was when she compared her daughter's development to her son's when he was her age. At about six to nine months old, her daughter was not making sounds like other babies. Her pediatrician said this could be a normal trait for her as a younger sibling as she watches her older brother. At a year and a half to about 18 months, Opfer said her daughter was still behind in developing simple words. "That's when I realized this is more significant than just being behind," Opfer said. "She would say stuff but her mouth wouldn't open." There were several resources Opfer used to help her daughter. One of these resources was her sister who works as a speech therapist. Opfer's sister told her not to be surprised if she was diagnosed with apraxia. "She was a really great resource," Opfer said. "She's kinda just out of school so she had a lot of knowledge and was sending me links I got a lot of really good information the beneficial stuff and not so much the very scary things." Opfer also works as a mental health counselor which gives her a larger background in human development. Other resources came from the Apraxia Kids website, the organizers of the walk on Sunday. "I think that it was probably a lot easier for me as a professional and having that connection to my sister," Opfer said. "I absolutely think we were very fortunate to have these resources and the accessibility to that." To help her daughter, Opfer signed her up for speech therapy at one and a half years old. Her daughter also uses an augmentative and alternative communication device, similar to an iPad with a list of words and phrases. Opfer said apraxia will likely be something her daughter will have to manage her whole life, so she is giving her these tools early. "Early intervention is important with almost every developmental disorder," Opfer said. On Sunday, Sept. 15, 11 a.m. at Seven Hills Recreation Center and Pavilion, 7777 Summit View Drive in Seven Hills, Ohio, Apraxia Kids will host a free family-friendly awareness walk. There is no cost to participate or register, but donations are welcome. Other features of the event include a DJ, face painting and recognition of kids with apraxia and their siblings. Registration is open on the Apraxia Kids website. Watch the full 15-minute interview with Opfer on the Sandusky Register's YouTube channel. Want to go? What: An awareness walk for childhood apraxia of speech When: Sunday, Sept 15. Registration opens at 10 a.m. and the walk starts at 11 a.m. Where: Seven Hills Recreation Center & Pavilion, 7777 Summit View Drive Seven Hills, OH 44131 Who: All ages are invited More: More information and registration can be found at the Apraxia Kids website.