Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Mikey Akers. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Mikey, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
Growing up with childhood apraxia of speech (a neurological speech disorder), I was always very self conscious about the way I spoke. So much so that right up into early adulthood, I would not speak in front of people I didn’t know. I had a huge anxiety around anything that involved my speech. At the age of 13, I started sharing my story of growing up with CAS, as I didn’t want any other family to feel the loneliness my family and I felt growing up. After a few years I caught the attention of Apraxia Kids and they asked me to travel to America to share my story at one of their National Conferences. This would be my very first attempt at public speaking. When the day can I was a nervous wreck. I remember looking out at the 400+ faces looking my way, all waiting to hear me speak. The anxiety hit but it was too important not to share my story. Everyone listened to every word I said. You could have heard a pin drop. At the end I was given a standing ovation. People came up and thanked me for speaking out for their children, some with tears in their eyes. I realised that to the parents of children with CAS, it was important that they heard my voice. This gave me a new found confidence and I have now spoken at 3 Apraxia Kids Conferences and held two of my own conferences. I am an ‘expert by experience’ at Birmingham City University where I speak to student speech therapists about my experiences growing up. I travel to different schools to talk to the children and staff about going through education with SEN. I have appeared in a primetime TV documentary called Chris Kamara: Lost for Words and I am the founder of the registered charity, Mikey’s Wish Foundation. Now I have found my voice and my confidence, I refuse to be silent.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I have been raising awareness of childhood apraxia of speech for the last 10 years through my Facebook page Mikey’s Wish – Verbal Dyspraxia Awareness. Here in the UK, there is very little support for people living with CAS and other speech, language and communication needs so I tabled a petition calling for the UK Government to invest more money into speech and language services. This gained support from the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists. We gained over 10,000 signatures and had a reply from the government, which was great and then even though we hadn’t reached the 100,000 signatures needed for them to debate the issue, they agreed to debate it. It is going to be debated on the 27th January 2025 and will hopefully be the beginning of bringing change to the speech and language services and hopefully in the future every child, teen or adult who needs to access this vital service will be able to in the near future. Whilst raising awareness, setting up petitions and working full time as an early years practitioner, I also decided earlier this year that I wanted to make Mikey’s Wish a registered charity, Mikey’s Wish Foundation. This was all finalised in October and we now have 6 amazing trustees working with us who all have the same passion of bringing change.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I think the 3 qualities that have helped me get to where I am today are sheer determination to support others on a similar journey to me. Empathy and a great understanding of what they are going through and resilience. All three qualities that I believe I have due to growing up with CAS.
The advice I would give to others early on in their journey is to just work hard, don’t give in and with the right support, anything is possible:
Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?
The one person who has been most helpful in helping me overcome any challenges and build the qualities that I need to be where I am today is my mum.
She has supported me every step of the way on this journey. Every night, ensuring that she did my speech homework with me, fighting the education system to ensure that I get the support I needed but always doing in with the best nature. Never backing down but at the same time never losing her cool when things didn’t quite go our way. I learnt from the best! She never treated me any different from my two siblings who didn’t have CAS. She would encourage me to do everything they did. She travelled to America with me when I did my first public speaking and she has been by my side lobbying the government to invest in speech and language services. I would not be the man I am today without my mum by my side.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mikeyswishfoundation.org/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/apt9njFcdgZBAqeT/?mibextid=wwXIfr
- Twitter: @MikeysWish_VDA
Image Credits
Louisa Akers
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
