Ronda Rousey’s career has been full of ups and downs. In the UFC, she was the most dominant fighter, male or female, that anyone had ever seen, and for a time she was arguably the most popular athlete in America. After she finally lost in shocking fashion, her MMA career began to turn around.
A switch to WWE was a big deal, but with her wrong choice like a smiling baby face and her lack of mic skills, Rousey couldn’t be the best in the women’s division. Now that her character has changed to a more badass gimmick that fans love to see from her, Rousey’s confidence has grown and her promotions have greatly improved. It’s no surprise that Rousey was able to overcome her flaws. She has been fighting since she was a child, when she could barely speak.
Childhood apraxia of speech affects the pathways used when we speak
Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a rare disorder in which a child has difficulty making precise movements with the mouth, tongue, and jaw when speaking. There is nothing physically wrong with these body parts. The disorder stems from the brain having trouble sending the signals that make movement possible. It can cause a child not to speak for the first time until later in life, or when she does, her words are limited or unintelligible.
To correct CAS, the brain must be trained to precisely tell the parts of the body involved in speech how to move to form words. This is done primarily through rigorous speech therapy with a trained speech therapist.
Ronda Rousey had a hard time communicating as a child
For the first six years of Ronda Rouey’s life, she struggled to form intelligible sentences. Although she was not diagnosed with infantile apraxia of speech at the time, as the condition was extremely rare and poorly understood, she Rousey herself took speech therapy lessons as a child.
He told ABC News about it in 2015, saying: “At first I was tested for deafness. They thought maybe my pronunciation was wrong because I heard things differently. But actually I had all these words perfectly arranged in my head, it’s just that when they tried to come out of my mouth they sounded different. It was as if there was a division between my brain and my mouth.”
Ronda Rousey and her family believe it may have been the fact that Rouey was born with the umbilical cord around her neck that caused the disorder. It’s ironic that someone who became known for strangling her opponents nearly strangled him at birth. It’s almost like it’s fate. Ronda was born a wrestler, so she turned pro too.
Ronda Rousey overcame apraxia
It was actually a fan at a book signing in 2015 who told Ronda Rousey about CAS. The fan was a speech pathologist who gave Rousey a brochure about the disorder. Said Rousey: “I actually ended up reading the whole thing that night and was like, ‘Oh my God, this is it exactly. This is exactly what it was. I didn’t know it was actually apraxia until that point.”
She has been an advocate for CAS awareness back then, spreading the message whenever she can. Though she’s over it herself, Rousey admits he still sticks with her. When fans mock her ability to promote her, Rousey is already aware of it and calls it the most difficult aspect of wrestling.
She told USA Today, “I’ve always had trouble slurring my words or mispronouncing my words. In the ring, it’s so important that you speak so clearly, be easy to understand and not falter at all, which makes me more nervous and more likely to mispronounce things. It’s been really cool for me to be able to work on it and get over those fears that I’ve had since I was a little kid.”
So the next time you feel like poking fun at the baddest woman on the planet when she makes a mistake during a SmackDown promo, take it easy. She has been through and overcome more than many of us ever will.