Mercy College Communication Disorders Program Participated in Westchester Walk for Apraxia

The Mercy College chapter of the National Student Speech and Language Hearing Association (NSSLHA), along with Mercy faculty and staff from the Communication Disorders program, participated in the 2021 Westchester Walk for Childhood Apraxia.

Apraxia is a motor speech disorder that affects the brain pathways involved in producing speech, and causes difficulty creating the complex oral movements needed to create sounds into syllables, syllables into words and words into phases.

In close collaboration with Walk Coordinator Kristen Polidoro, the Mercy NSSLHA chapter helped organize the event to raise awareness about childhood apraxia and support medical research for the disorder. The walk raised more than $18,000 in funding and Mercy’s NSSLHA organization raised more than $1,400.

Established in 1972, the NSSLHA is the only national student organization for pre-professionals studying communication sciences and disorders (CSD) recognized by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). The Mercy chapter organizes several events throughout the year, including the Walk for Hearing, Trunk or Treat, hearing screenings, support groups for first-year students and educational panels.