On Fri, Sep 17, 2010 at 6:18 AM, Sarah Haynes <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I do have a question for all of you though. I worry that I'll focus too much on the cp
> and not enough on raising a healthy happy girl. All I want is for her to be happy,
> and beleive she can acomplish anything she can. I don't want her to think she's
> disabled, because she's already proven she's not. Any tips?
>
That's a tough one. We have a very bright 7 year old girl who barely
walks with assistance, can barely verbalize and who has pretty poor
use of her left hand. In other words, it's very obvious she has CP.
For us, the focus on CP is unavoidable: we've got OT, PT, ST
(therapies), stretching times, walkers, standers and who knows what
else. But basically, that becomes routine and is just part of life
around the house. One of the big issues for her not to be "the kid
with CP" is to find ways for her to play with her friends. Luckily
we've been able to find a couple of her class mates (she's main
streamed in an advanced academics class) who are happy to come over
and play with her.
There are occasions when she wants to do things that her 11 year old
sister does and we have to talk about what her real limitations are
(and sometimes why). She mostly understands this, but there are
occasions when she is determined, that at least in the long term, she
will do certain things that are just beyond her current abilities. I
talk to her about what may make that possible (stem cell research and
other new discoveries in medicine) and how it's very possible that
those may happen in her life time, maybe even in the next 5, 10, 15
years. You do have to be realistic...
All of us have limitations, so I think the the key is learning what
those are and better, learning where you have fewer limitations. For
our daughter that means focusing on her academic abilities; math and
computers in particular seem to come easy to her. Biggest thing I'd
currently like to work out is a better way for her to make music.
She's shown she has very good musical capabilities (easily memorizes
song that she pecks out with one finger on the piano). I bring that
up, because for me, basically, you take each challenge one at a time
as they come up. Sometimes you have to put off solutions for the
future, but when that happens you talk about why and you proceed on to
something else. It's not like you ever run out of new challenges...
--
Peter Hunsberger
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