Personal Narrative: Cerebral Palsy Changed My Life

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Recommended: Being a parent of a child with a disability

14 years ago my mom gave birth to my brother who was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy because he was not breathing when they delivered him. At the time I was two years old and I was not aware of what challenges my brother would face. I had no clue on why our house was filled with people everyday coming to see my brother after my mom got home from work. Learning later in life that a Physical Therapist, Developmental Therapist, Occupational Therapist, and a Speech Therapist visited him on a daily basis. Some of them who grew attached to our family and we still see on a regular basis. They only came to the house until he started kindergarten. My mom later told me that he was in a early development program which only lasted for the first five years …show more content…

Watching their struggles is what sparked an interest in me becoming a Physical Therapist. My brother had several surgeries. He can’t walk and is depending on a wheelchair to get around. My mom relies on his daily therapy goals to help him to become more productive in life. In the beginning my mom had hopes that he would be able to walk so that at first that was her priority. After so many years had gone by and realizing that he was not going to be able to accomplish this and noticing that there were other problems, her goals for him eventually changed. In 2009 he ended up having hip surgery. After the surgery, he was no longer able to do some of the things he could do before the surgery. So my mom noticed that he was having head and neck control and he couldn’t sit up by himself. Her focused turned to this being his primary goals. My mom was really frustrated because he went through a lot of therapist and they were not able to accomplish this. My brother is 14 and he still can’t sit up without assistance and we have to constantly tell him to hold his head up. Some times I wonder if he knows that he is handicap because he wants to do everything the kids that are not handicap are

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