McCANDLESS, Pa. — Eight hundred people gathered at North Park Sunday afternoon to raise money for children with apraxia of speech, a motor skill disorder that makes it difficult for some children to learn how to speak.
“For some reasons we don’t quite know, kids are unable to produce the muscle movements of the lips, tongue, mouth and jaw to produce speech, so they need years of intense speech therapy to learn how to be understood,” said Justin Lewinter, event manager for Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association.
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About 50 families affected by the disorder attended the walk, including Dan Pschirer and Jamie Pschirer, whose son Rowan Pschirer has apraxia.
“There was a time when we didn’t know if he was going to make it. He had a lot of eating struggles in the beginning. (We) couldn’t figure out what was going on and tried every test possible until we found CASANA,” said Jamie Pschirer.
CASANA (Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association of North America) is a national group, based in Pittsburgh, that provides iPads and speech therapy to children with the disorder.
The group had a goal of raising $30,000 at the walk.
WPXI
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