If your child has apraxia, a speech disorder, or any kind of communication delay, this episode is for you. Host Jenny Olson sits down with Laura Smith, a speech language pathologist who specializes in childhood apraxia of speech and is also a special needs parent herself. Laura's daughter Ashlynn has apraxia and intellectual disabilities, which means she brings both professional knowledge and real caregiver experience to this conversation. This is the kind of expert interview you won't find anywhere else.

In this episode, Jenny and Laura talk about what apraxia really is, why so many children go undiagnosed or get the wrong therapy, and how to find an SLP who actually specializes in it. Laura shares the three stages of parent advocacy she has seen in her years of working with special needs families, from the initial diagnosis all the way through to becoming a confident and informed advocate for your child. She also opens up about her own journey of missing the signs in her daughter at first, even as a trained speech pathologist, and how that experience shaped her into the specialist and advocate she is today.

Jenny and Laura also get real about the emotional side of caregiving. They talk about the grief that comes in waves as your special needs child grows up, the milestones that hit differently, and what it feels like when your child ages out of school and the support system disappears. They also dig into what the post high school transition looks like, including day programs, Medicaid waivers, SSI, and the waitlists that families need to know about way earlier than they think.

Whether your child is young and newly diagnosed or a teenager heading toward adulthood, this conversation is full of honest advice, practical resources, and real talk from two moms who are living this caregiving life every single day.

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Guest Laura Smith: Author, Speaker, SLP, Apraxia Advocate Speech Therapy Practice: A Mile High Speech Therapy (website currently down, but up again soon) IG: https://www.instagram.com/SLPMommyofApraxia/ FB: Laura- SLP Mommy of Apraxia

Mentions: Apraxia Foundation: apraxiafoundation.org

childapraxiatreatment.org

Follow the podcast on IG: https://www.instagram.com/adult.special.needs.caregiving/