148: Fighting for my Voice: My Life with Verbal Apraxia with Jordan Christian LeVan

Are you wondering how you can have a greater impact on your students with verbal apraxia?

In this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I sat down with Jordan Christian LeVan to talk about his journey with verbal apraxia. He is sharing tips for SLPs who are working with these students.

Jordan Christian LeVan is an apraxia, disability, and mental health advocate. He writes about his life experiences with childhood apraxia of speech on his blog, Fighting for my Voice: My Life with Verbal Apraxia. He wants to show the world that being different is okay and that we should celebrate who we all are.

Jordan couldn’t speak until he was 5 years old, and to have a conversation with strangers was difficult even at age 12. Nevertheless, Jordan aims to be the person he needed when he was younger. He recently published his nonfictional children’s book series called, Jordan’s World. It has sold over 15,000 copies and has been picked up by numerous retailers.

In This Episode You’ll Discover:

Jordan’s journey with verbal apraxia
The importance of patience when working with these students
Jordan’s experience with self-advocacy
How speech therapy differs from childhood to adulthood
Misconceptions about people with verbal apraxia
Why we need to teach students that they are worth more than their speech
The difference between speaking perfectly and speaking confidently
The impact of his books on verbal apraxia

It’s so important that we show students that there’s nothing wrong with the things that make them who they are and that we teach them how to advocate for themselves. Helping them find confidence and pride in themselves will make a huge difference in their lives.

If you loved this conversation with Jordan and want to learn more about him, you can check out his books and follow him on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok. You can also check out The Apraxia Foundation. Everything is linked below!

Joke of the Week:

Q: Why do some people get into the pizza business?

A: To make some dough.

Resources Mentioned:

Visit Jordan’s website

Follow Jordan on Facebook

Follow Jordan on Instagram

Follow Jordan on TikTok

Check out Jordan’s books on Amazon

Check out the Apraxia Foundation website

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