Special Needs questions

[1BZmom]

My son is 3 years old with a for of Cerebal Palsy called Spastic Left Hemiparesis. He is very high functioning and has begun to notice that his left half of his body doesn't work as well as his right. He has lots and lots of questions as to why he has C.P. and his big sybs don't, why does he have to were the braces, and do the stretches, etc. Any one out there who can give advise, or knows what we're going through I'd love to talk.

[Mamadecuatro]

Hi! My daughter is eleven years old. She does very well physically, but has some form of mental disability and a speech disability called developmental apraxia. I remember what it was like the first times she realized that she wasn't talking like her younger brothers, or when they went to school, were learning to read and write, things of that nature. When she was younger, if people (young children) would ask (if front of her) "Whats wrong with her? Why cant she talk right? I cant understand her" etc...She wasnt aware. But now its different and she is kind of self conscience when we are away from home or her brothers. She doesn't want to say anything because she doesnt want people to hear her. The other day she was so excited to be doing her 'reading' homework, like her brothers. She was showing me her book (which was upside down) and she was 'reading' the words out loud, wanting to impress me. She's at that age that she is growing up, physically and in maturity. She wants to be like other girls she knows. Right now she has a bit of a crush on a neighbor boy (which I am TOTALLY not ready for!). He is very sweet and patient to try and talk to her, even though he doesn't understand her. I see her working so hard to tell him something that happened that day, and it makes me sad and proud at the same time. Its hard for her to have friends or go play with other girls her age because of the barriers. She needs me or her brothers to 'interpret'. I am thankful she is very healthy and doing well. We are so blessed to have a sweet, beautiful daughter.

I have learned that as long as we keep things very much the same with no changes, she does pretty well. No melt downs. No melt downs is a good thing. :)

[1BZmom]

Thank you for writing back and sharing you daughter with me. It's really nice to know that there are other moms out there with the same or similar struggles. I am glad Ryan is only 3 and I don't have to worry about girls yet! He still thinks they are yucky. We recently made a trip to Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City for his check up, we took the train, which instead of inspiring a hundred questions on why are we going to see my doctor, why can't Brandon come(an older school-age brother), etc. He was so full of himself feeling so important that he got to do something special, because of a doctor visit. So that turned out great!

[jg7890]

go to google and type in hemi-kids there is a great support website