There isn’t much any parent worth their salt wouldn’t give up for their child.

No parent can be completely happy until their children are first, so the mere thought of them being unhappy or, God forbid, seriously upset about something is enough to give us fits.

Regretfully, the world isn’t always fair and can be unkind at times. Some children are different from others from birth,

and it’s not their fault. While some people are obliged to overcome hardship that their counterparts do not, others live with disability.

Being a parent of a child in the latter category, Ashley Austrew is no stranger to the situation. She recently penned

an essay pleading with people to not talking about her speech-impaired kid as though he is deaf… and reading it is definitely engaging.

Ashley wrote a blog for CafeMom stating that her 4-year-old’s speech delay prevents him from pronouncing words clearly.

It can make navigating daily life more challenging than it otherwise would be, particularly as he may find it difficult to understand new people.

Ashley stated in an article for CafeMom that although the boy has a large vocabulary and exceptional comprehension for his age,

he suffers from a speech impediment that causes him to mispronounce letters. For instance, ‘soccer’

becomes “’,’ which doesn’t seem too difficult to understand, but occasionally he blends sounds inside words.

Posted on Friday, March 10, 2023, by Ashley Austrew, Ashley also brought up a specific recent instance in which

she took her young son to get his hair cut. The hairdresser happened to ask him a question while he was there.

The woman allegedly inquired, ‘What grade are you going to be in?’

‘Um, pee-tay,’the youngster said in reply.

‘What?’

‘Pee. Tay,’he repeated.

Ashley described how the remainder of the appointment went similarly, requiring her to interpret for the hairstylist whenever her kid spoke.

That would have been reasonable enough on its own, but every now and then Ashley would hear the hairdresser ask, ‘How’d you understand that?’ or ‘How are you able to discern his words?’

Ashley continued by saying that, regrettably, her son experiences this frequently even though he has “excellent comprehension and a huge vocabulary.”

She went on, ‘I don’t blame people for misunderstandings.’ ‘I also misunderstand things sometimes. He understands that I didn’t hear what he said when I ask him to repeat it.

She went on, ‘I know it’s difficult for someone who hasn’t spent as much time with him as I have or who has only recently met him.

The issue arises when they discuss it as though he is incapable of understanding what they are saying.

In other words, Ashley wants people to stop thinking of her son as an oddball and to stop thinking that

her translation is some kind of amazing show. Inquiries concerning his speech patterns and medical background are common.

But Ashley’s son is in a special education program and works with a speech-language pathologist three days a week, as she detailed in her CafeMom article.

‘His regular teacher is trained in working with kids with developmental delays as well,’ Ashley said.

‘I’m so grateful for them and how he’s enveloped in their kindness every day. I’m really appreciative that

in the few weeks that he’s been attending school, I can already tell what a huge difference in his speech pattern.

She concluded: ‘Yes, my son is difficult to understand sometimes. However, that doesn’t lessen the reality of him or any other kid with a developmental delay.

And the way you speak to and about kids like my son has an influence, even if they can’t articulate it’.