Nyle DiMarco (born Nyle Thompson) is an American model, actor, activist, and Deaf community spokesman. In 2015, he was the first deaf contestant, and also the very first deaf winner, of 22nd season of America's Next Top Model. He was also the winner on season 22 of Dancing with the Stars in 2016, making him the first deaf winner
DiMarco was born (May 8, 1989) in Queens, New York to Neal Thompson, Sr and Donna DiMarco. He comes from a deaf family with his parents, both of his brothers, and his grandparents all born deaf. His parents divorced when he was young and his mother raised the children alone. He grew up in Frederick, Maryland, and graduated from Gallaudet University with a degree in mathematics. DiMarco lives in New York City. American Sign Language (ASL) is his native language and he is also proficient in lip reading and nonverbal communication.
Parents often wonder why their child has apraxia of speech and whether or not they did something "wrong".
First, it is important for parents to
understand that there is most likely nothing that you did to “cause”
your child’s speech disability. It is not about how much you talked to
your child or whether or not you had them in daycare, for example. Your
child does not have apraxia because you separated from […]
This question, dealing with long-term
outcomes and prognosis, is one that virtually all parents will wonder
and ask at some point after learning that their child has CAS. This
question might arise during the childs initial assessment, or later,
sometime during intervention. It is an important question for both
parents and speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to […]
Let me begin by noting that my clinical and
research experience convinces me that the core problem in this disorder
is appropriately described by the diagnostic term childhood apraxia of
speech. The controversy, as I see it, is that there currently are no
research findings that provide unequivocal support for the core problem
or its […]
When a person decides to communicate
verbally, the message first has to be converted from an abstract idea to
meaningful linguistic (language) symbols. Syntactic, morphological, and
phonological planning, occur. This linguistic-symbolic planning is a
pre-motor (non-motor) phase. The language message must then be
transformed into a code that can be handled by a motor (movement) […]
When I assess variability and consistency I
use specific operational definitions to define each behavior. The
following is related to the perceptual analysis level (basically what
our ear tells us is happening). Variability refers to the tendency to
make different errors during multiple productions of a given sound in
the exact context (same word or […]
The primary findings on the genetics of CAS
have emerged from studies of a London family (the ‘KE’ family), half of
whose members have an orofacial apraxia and a reported apraxia of
speech. Reviews of this widely-cited project include technical and more
accessible descriptions of the mutation on the FOXP2 gene (located on
chromosome 7) […]
Developmental-behavioral pediatrics is a
subspecialty of pediatrics. As such, it functions with the orientation,
beliefs, and practices of Western allopathic medicine. In this
tradition, the practitioner gathers information about signs and symptoms
and tries to explain them through a single over-riding diagnosis. In
the process, the practitioner considers many diagnoses that might
account for signs […]
The purpose of genetic testing is to provide
a genetic diagnosis and to provide as much information as possible to
patients and families. First, the information may explain why a child,
in this case, has a disorder. Understanding the cause of a disorder is
helpful to many families. Second, if the testing reveals a known […]
When a child is diagnosed with a speech
problem such as CAS, their parents enter a world of therapists and
services that is new and unfamiliar to most of them. The process of
evaluation and development of an intervention plan can be intimidating.
It may be tempting for parents to rely on the therapist to […]
Children with apraxia of speech are often described in the professional
literature as needing frequent and intensive speech therapy in order to
address the motor planning and programming issues which are at the heart
of their speech difficulty. Included below are the most relevant
citations available in the literature that describe the need for
frequency […]
the link at the top of the page will take you where you can find out this and a lot more about Apraxia
