Young man undaunted by developmental disabilities
By Pam Mellskog
2009 Longmont Times-Call
LONGMONT — Though blue jean-clad and just 20 years old, Kyle Sanchez talks and acts like a gentleman.
He criticizes rap music for lyrics that “disrespect women” and holds his mother’s hand in public if she — a 42-year-old widow disabled by multiple sclerosis — becomes unsteady on her feet.
Sanchez — who lives with her and his younger brother, Andrew — got a job last year to help pay the family’s bills. But his helpful attitude earned him more than a paycheck.
Sanchez received the Governor’s Summer Job Hunt Award from 400 nominees statewide in August. In March, he became the 2009 Direct Support Professional of the Year in Colorado — recognition bestowed by the Virginia-based American Network of Community Options and Resources, a nonprofit, national trade association.
The kudos means more given his once-desperate survivor status as a baby born 16 weeks early on May 18, 1988.
His family waited two months to touch him. Eventually, they dressed him in Cabbage Patch Doll clothing and made tiny diapers with gauze.
Dolores Sanchez, Kyle Sanchez’s maternal grandmother, put down her knitting and held up her hand to describe the situation.
“He fit in the palm of my hand. ... And there wasn’t a part of his body that wasn’t attached to something,” she said, referring to the ventilator, monitor wires, intravenous lines and feeding tube. “I didn’t know how God was going to work this miracle, because I didn’t see it happening.”
The Children’s Hospital in Denver, where Kyle Sanchez lived until age 7 months, gave him a 20 percent chance of survival and a 10 percent chance of survival without serious disability.
No one except his mother, Maria Sanchez-Trujillo, expected him to live, much less to walk or talk.
Kyle Sanchez survived and then got help from age 3 on at the Lafayette-based Imagine! center for people with developmental disabilities. In 2007, he graduated from Skyline High School in Longmont.
“But he said it had always been his dream to work,” said Heather Hine, his supervisor in Imagine!’s Out and About program.
She hired him last May to work full time last summer as an assistant in this recreation therapy program for Imagine! clients. Participants include people ages 7 to 21 living with developmental disabilities such as autism, cerebral palsy and Down syndrome.
Kyle Sanchez now works part time in Out and About’s after-school program.
Hine remembers him arriving for the interview wearing pressed slacks, a dress shirt and a tie. After he interviewed well, she offered him the job.
“You should have seen his face. It was one of shock and just sheer joy,” she said. “He kept saying ‘Thank you,’ and ‘I’m going to work so hard.’”
Kristen Erby, a career counselor with Workforce Boulder County in Longmont, applauded him for landing a competitive job.
“Nobody with disabilities wants to be put (to work) in the back of a warehouse,” she said. “He’s compassionate and a great role model to the camp participants because he’s overcome his own barriers to employment.”
For instance, Kyle Sanchez struggles to understand time. To get to work or to his desk at Life Strategies University — the St. Vrain Valley School District’s two-year life skills program in Longmont — he stands by the family’s mailbox and waits until his cell phone’s digital clock reads 7:59 a.m.
Then, he knows to head for the bus — a service with time-sensitive schedules he worked for years to understand.
His prematurity also affected his fine motor skills. Tying shoes and opening potato chip bags remain a challenge.
But Kyle Sanchez can do nothing more than take medication for the worst consequence of his early birth — a weak heart. His ticker may fail to give him the years he wants to work, start a family and enjoy his surprising life.
“The attitude for me would be, ‘Keep on goin’ ’til you can’t no more,’” he said.
Pam Mellskog can be reached at 303-684-5224 or pmellskog@times-call.com.
Showing posts with label developmental disabilities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label developmental disabilities. Show all posts
27 March 2009
24 February 2009
Special Education Yoga finds new fans in school
By showing how yoga can help disabled students, one enthusiastic teacher has made the discipline standard practice. > By John H. Tucker
Inside the gymnasium of P.S.811x, in the East Morrisania section of the Bronx, Martha Gold weaved her way around 50 yoga mats, adjusting the poses of her students. "Hug your knee, give it a big kiss, and say 'I'm perfect just the way I am,'" she chirped, eliciting a chorus of giggles.
For most New Yorkers, yoga, with its deep stretches and wicked bends, can be difficult. But at P.S.811x, which enrolls children with cerebral palsy and other disabilities, it's uniquely challenging. With limited range of motion, many of the students here can't eat or dress on their own. Several are confined to wheelchairs.
On this day, however, the room was astir with moving limbs as the students took to their mats. After a decade or two of working its way into New York's mainstream, yoga is now flowing into the city's District 75, an umbrella classification for the classes and schools that serves students with brain damage, autism and other developmental, behavioral or psychological disabilities. Physical therapists at these schools are beginning to discover the benefits of the practice, and some estimate that nearly half the schools offer a yoga class. Not long ago, that percentage was close to zero.
The advantages of yoga for healthy people are well-documented: increased strength, flexibility and relaxation. But for the child with developmental disabilities, the benefits are perhaps greater. Heightened sensory awareness, vocalization skills and breathing capacity are just a few.
"A lot of these children have a reduced respiratory system,” said Joe Cattelona, a physical therapist at P.S.138m, a District 75 program in East Harlem. “Yoga gives them better oxygenation to the blood, which circulates to their brain and allows them to breathe in ways they don't normally do."
By prompting the brain to release serotonin and dopamine, yoga also helps lower the heightened anxiety that's characteristic of children with cerebral palsy, said Susan Flynn, an occupational therapist at P.S.10x in the Bronx.
Last month, Mayor Bloomberg frightened education advocates by announcing that budget cuts could lead to the elimination of 14,000 education jobs. Some feared that the city’s physical education programs — which include District 75 yoga classes — might also be impacted. But because of the newly approved stimulus package, which is expected to endow the city with more than $1 billion for education — including a large portion for special-needs education — many of those fears have been put to rest.
Even if education cuts were made, yoga programs and other physical education classes wouldn’t have taken much of a hit, said Director of Fitness and Health Education Lori Rose Benson. A reason for this, she said, is that her office is largely funded by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, in a collaborative effort to fight childhood obesity.
Under the seven-year chancellorship of Joel Klein, “a significant” amount of money has been injected into the department’s physical education budget for the first time in decades, said Benson. The money has gone toward equipment, training programs and — in the case of District 75 — a newly appointed physical education director and new outreach efforts with Special Olympics officials.
~
The surge of yoga within District 75 — which comprises 56 schools — is primarily thanks to Gold, a physical therapist who arrived at P.S.811x, also known as the Academy for Career and Living Skills, several years ago. One day she introduced a number of poses to four able-bodied students in class. A few weeks later, six others joined. Eventually, the sessions outgrew the classroom.
In 2004, Gold and three colleagues began offering weekly workshops for other special-education professionals in the city. The workshops eventually reached 200 therapists and teachers, many of whom immediately began implementing programs with their own students.
"After that, it spread like wildfire," recalled Katherine Deats, who co-taught that workshop and is now a yoga instructor for two District 75 schools in Manhattan. "These kids have such a hard time succeeding in anything," Deats said. "But they can go to yoga and succeed. If you can breathe and chant, you succeed."
Gold, a Queens native in her later 30s, is a slight woman, shy, with jet-black hair, siren-red lipstick and a penchant for bright velvet jumpsuits. Popular among fellow teachers, she's known for the enormous audio speaker she rolls to and from yoga class each day like a worn-out suitcase. She greets colleagues in the hallway by clasping her hands in prayer, bowing down and politely saying "Namaste," a Sanskrit greeting of deep respect. The teachers return the gesture.
Luis Quintana, the school’s assistant principal, said he’s grateful for Gold's vision. "I see a decrease in aggressive-violent behaviors among the children immediately after her class," Quintana said.
"Martha is one hard-working woman who puts her heart and soul into helping children," said Debra Krasinski, a Columbia University professor and physical therapist, who each year invites Gold to give a yoga workshop to her doctoral students.
Gold also runs her workshops for other physical and occupational therapists, special education teachers and nurses across the city. She offers training sessions to members of the District 75 PTA, as well as educating skeptics who worry yoga is too religious for their children. "It's not religious, it's spiritual," says Gold, who one day wants to open a studio where able-bodied and disabled children can come together to practice yoga in order to learn the value of acceptance.
"If you take the physical body and all of its limitations out of the equation and get down to the level of the soul, we are all equal and ideal," she said.
Inside the gymnasium of P.S.811x, in the East Morrisania section of the Bronx, Martha Gold weaved her way around 50 yoga mats, adjusting the poses of her students. "Hug your knee, give it a big kiss, and say 'I'm perfect just the way I am,'" she chirped, eliciting a chorus of giggles.
For most New Yorkers, yoga, with its deep stretches and wicked bends, can be difficult. But at P.S.811x, which enrolls children with cerebral palsy and other disabilities, it's uniquely challenging. With limited range of motion, many of the students here can't eat or dress on their own. Several are confined to wheelchairs.
On this day, however, the room was astir with moving limbs as the students took to their mats. After a decade or two of working its way into New York's mainstream, yoga is now flowing into the city's District 75, an umbrella classification for the classes and schools that serves students with brain damage, autism and other developmental, behavioral or psychological disabilities. Physical therapists at these schools are beginning to discover the benefits of the practice, and some estimate that nearly half the schools offer a yoga class. Not long ago, that percentage was close to zero.
The advantages of yoga for healthy people are well-documented: increased strength, flexibility and relaxation. But for the child with developmental disabilities, the benefits are perhaps greater. Heightened sensory awareness, vocalization skills and breathing capacity are just a few.
"A lot of these children have a reduced respiratory system,” said Joe Cattelona, a physical therapist at P.S.138m, a District 75 program in East Harlem. “Yoga gives them better oxygenation to the blood, which circulates to their brain and allows them to breathe in ways they don't normally do."
By prompting the brain to release serotonin and dopamine, yoga also helps lower the heightened anxiety that's characteristic of children with cerebral palsy, said Susan Flynn, an occupational therapist at P.S.10x in the Bronx.
Last month, Mayor Bloomberg frightened education advocates by announcing that budget cuts could lead to the elimination of 14,000 education jobs. Some feared that the city’s physical education programs — which include District 75 yoga classes — might also be impacted. But because of the newly approved stimulus package, which is expected to endow the city with more than $1 billion for education — including a large portion for special-needs education — many of those fears have been put to rest.
Even if education cuts were made, yoga programs and other physical education classes wouldn’t have taken much of a hit, said Director of Fitness and Health Education Lori Rose Benson. A reason for this, she said, is that her office is largely funded by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, in a collaborative effort to fight childhood obesity.
Under the seven-year chancellorship of Joel Klein, “a significant” amount of money has been injected into the department’s physical education budget for the first time in decades, said Benson. The money has gone toward equipment, training programs and — in the case of District 75 — a newly appointed physical education director and new outreach efforts with Special Olympics officials.
~
The surge of yoga within District 75 — which comprises 56 schools — is primarily thanks to Gold, a physical therapist who arrived at P.S.811x, also known as the Academy for Career and Living Skills, several years ago. One day she introduced a number of poses to four able-bodied students in class. A few weeks later, six others joined. Eventually, the sessions outgrew the classroom.
In 2004, Gold and three colleagues began offering weekly workshops for other special-education professionals in the city. The workshops eventually reached 200 therapists and teachers, many of whom immediately began implementing programs with their own students.
"After that, it spread like wildfire," recalled Katherine Deats, who co-taught that workshop and is now a yoga instructor for two District 75 schools in Manhattan. "These kids have such a hard time succeeding in anything," Deats said. "But they can go to yoga and succeed. If you can breathe and chant, you succeed."
Gold, a Queens native in her later 30s, is a slight woman, shy, with jet-black hair, siren-red lipstick and a penchant for bright velvet jumpsuits. Popular among fellow teachers, she's known for the enormous audio speaker she rolls to and from yoga class each day like a worn-out suitcase. She greets colleagues in the hallway by clasping her hands in prayer, bowing down and politely saying "Namaste," a Sanskrit greeting of deep respect. The teachers return the gesture.
Luis Quintana, the school’s assistant principal, said he’s grateful for Gold's vision. "I see a decrease in aggressive-violent behaviors among the children immediately after her class," Quintana said.
"Martha is one hard-working woman who puts her heart and soul into helping children," said Debra Krasinski, a Columbia University professor and physical therapist, who each year invites Gold to give a yoga workshop to her doctoral students.
Gold also runs her workshops for other physical and occupational therapists, special education teachers and nurses across the city. She offers training sessions to members of the District 75 PTA, as well as educating skeptics who worry yoga is too religious for their children. "It's not religious, it's spiritual," says Gold, who one day wants to open a studio where able-bodied and disabled children can come together to practice yoga in order to learn the value of acceptance.
"If you take the physical body and all of its limitations out of the equation and get down to the level of the soul, we are all equal and ideal," she said.
17 February 2009
There's Always Someone Worse Off Then You
I was reading in my local paper today, so many tragic things happening all over .I know I've been asking for advice and very few comments from those others for whatever reasons ?The ones who have responded are becoming my friends and I am listening to there suggestions.
I realizeI am fortunate to be as non -restricted as I am.I was reading about a little girl in my home town who is missing 2 days ,I can't imagine how her family is coping .So many times we only see our own situation I know I've struggled with Cerebral Palsy all my life ,knowing my future would not be average or high degreesand or jobs and for many years I was bitter >Today I realize so many other people have less or are going through loss,grief or tragedy far greater then I will or have gone through.
For the families and loved ones in harms way or those who are afflicted with hardships I pray and a higher power to bring all those suffering answers and peace to their particular situations. I was at a regional center meeting and I was really cold 48dgr's outside and the air coditioner was on !I was having shivering and my hands were trembling ,this was an orientation meeting to be accepted into a developmental disabilities program.I saw parents of children and I felt like crying .I know the battles my parent went through with me and also the social perception of a differently- abled child.I am so lucky to just be inconvenienced by my Cerebral Palsy ,I function moderately well and educationally well that's another story.My point to all this is I recently had to realize my goals and dreams are going ahead one day at a time.I now wake up more positive in just today.Sure I can't afford to go out or get my teeth fixed but maybe next month at least I have teeth and maybe soon someone will guide me to where I can do my music and afford to be on my own .Some have been taken away too soon and some just need much more then I to just have a meal once a day I am doing all I can for today
I realizeI am fortunate to be as non -restricted as I am.I was reading about a little girl in my home town who is missing 2 days ,I can't imagine how her family is coping .So many times we only see our own situation I know I've struggled with Cerebral Palsy all my life ,knowing my future would not be average or high degreesand or jobs and for many years I was bitter >Today I realize so many other people have less or are going through loss,grief or tragedy far greater then I will or have gone through.
For the families and loved ones in harms way or those who are afflicted with hardships I pray and a higher power to bring all those suffering answers and peace to their particular situations. I was at a regional center meeting and I was really cold 48dgr's outside and the air coditioner was on !I was having shivering and my hands were trembling ,this was an orientation meeting to be accepted into a developmental disabilities program.I saw parents of children and I felt like crying .I know the battles my parent went through with me and also the social perception of a differently- abled child.I am so lucky to just be inconvenienced by my Cerebral Palsy ,I function moderately well and educationally well that's another story.My point to all this is I recently had to realize my goals and dreams are going ahead one day at a time.I now wake up more positive in just today.Sure I can't afford to go out or get my teeth fixed but maybe next month at least I have teeth and maybe soon someone will guide me to where I can do my music and afford to be on my own .Some have been taken away too soon and some just need much more then I to just have a meal once a day I am doing all I can for today
07 February 2009
Speech-language pathologist
Speech-language pathology is the study of disorders that affect a person’s speech, language, cognition, voice, swallowing (dysphagia) and the rehabilitative or corrective treatment of physical and/or cognitive deficits/disorders resulting in difficulty with communication and/or swallowing. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) or Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) address people’s speech production, vocal production, swallowing difficulties and language needs through speech therapy in a variety of different contexts including schools, hospitals, and through private practice.
Communication includes speech (articulation, intonation, rate, intensity), language (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics), both receptive and expressive language (including reading and writing), and non-verbal communication such as facial expression and gesture. Swallowing problems managed under speech therapy are problems in the oral, laryngeal, and/or pharyngeal stages of swallowing (not oesophageal).
Depending on the nature and severity of the disorder, common treatments may range from physical strengthening exercises, instructive or repetitive practice and drilling, to the use of audio-visual aids and introduction of strategies to facilitate functional communication. Speech therapy may also include sign language and the use of picture symbols (Diehl 2003).
The practice is called:
Speech-language pathology (SLP) in the United States and Canada
Speech and language therapy (SLT) in the United Kingdom, Ireland and South Africa
Speech pathology in Australia
Speech-language therapy in New Zealand
Other terms in use include speech therapy, logopaedics and phoniatrics.
Contents
1 Scope of practice
2 Professional roles
3 Education
4 Methods of assessment
5 Patients/clients
6 Place of work
7 Colleagues
8 See also
9 External links
Scope of practice
The practice of speech-language pathology involves:
Providing prevention, screening, consultation, assessment and diagnosis, treatment, intervention, management, counseling, and follow-up services for disorders of:
speech (i.e., phonation, articulation, fluency, resonance, and voice including aeromechanical components of respiration);
language (i.e., phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatic/social aspects of communication) including comprehension and expression in oral, written, graphic, and manual modalities; language processing; preliteracy and language-based literacy skills, including phonological awareness;
swallowing or other upper aerodigestive functions such as infant feeding and aeromechanical events (evaluation of esophageal function is for the purpose of referral to medical professionals);
cognitive aspects of communication (e.g., attention, memory, problem solving, executive functions).
sensory awareness related to communication, swallowing, or other upper aerodigestive functions.
Establishing augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) techniques and strategies including developing, selecting, and prescribing of such systems and devices (e.g., speech generating devices.)
Providing services to individuals with hearing loss and their families/caregivers (e.g.,auditory training; speechreading; speech and language intervention secondary to hearing loss; visual inspection and listening checks of amplification devices for the purpose of troubleshooting, including verification of appropriate battery voltage).
Screening hearing of individuals who can participate in conventional pure-tone air conduction methods, as well as screening for middle ear pathology through screening tympanometry for the purpose of referral of individuals for further evaluation and management.
Using instrumentation (e.g., videofluoroscopy, EMG, nasendoscopy, stroboscopy, computer technology) to observe, collect data, and measure parameters of communication and swallowing, or other upper aerodigestive functions in accordance with the principles of evidence-based practice.
Selecting, fitting, and establishing effective use of prosthetic/adaptive devices for communication, swallowing, or other upper aerodigestive functions (e.g., tracheoesophageal prostheses, speaking valves, electrolarynges). This does not include sensory devices used by individuals with hearing loss or other auditory perceptual deficits.
Collaborating in the assessment of central auditory processing disorders and providing intervention where there is evidence of speech, language, and/or other cognitivecommunication disorders.
Educating and counseling individuals, families, co-workers, educators, and other persons in the community regarding acceptance, adaptation, and decision makes about communication, swallowing, or other upper aerodigestive concerns.
Advocating for individuals through community awareness, education, and training programs to promote and facilitate access to full participation in communication, including the elimination of societal barriers.
Collaborating with and providing referrals and information to audiologists, educators, and health professionals as individual needs dictate.
Addressing behaviors (e.g., perseverative or disruptive actions) and environments (e.g., seating, positioning for swallowing safety or attention, communication opportunities) that affect communication, swallowing, or other upper aerodigestive functions.
Providing services to modify or enhance communication performance (e.g., accent modification, transgendered voice, care and improvement of the professional voice, personal/ professional communication effectiveness).
Recognizing the need to provide and appropriately accommodate diagnostic and treatment services to individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds and adjust treatment and assessment services according.
Professional roles
Speech-language pathologists serve individuals, families, groups, and the general public through a broad range of professional activities. They:
Identify, define, and diagnose disorders of human communication and swallowing and assist in localization and diagnosis of diseases and conditions.
Provide direct services using a variety of service delivery models to treat and/or address communication, swallowing, or other upper aerodigestive concerns.
Conduct research related to communication sciences and disorders, swallowing, or other upper aerodigestive functions.
Educate, supervise, and mentor future speech-language pathologists.
Serve as case managers and service delivery coordinators.
Administer and manage clinical and academic programs.
Educate and provide in-service training to families, caregivers, and other professionals.
Participate in outcomes measurement activities and use data to guide clinical decision making and determine the effectiveness of services provided in accordance with the principles of evidence-based practice.
Train, supervise, and manage speech-language pathology assistants and other support personnel.
Promote healthy lifestyle practices for the prevention of communication, hearing, swallowing, or other upper aerodigestive disorders.
Education
In the UK( United Kingdom) , SLTs undertake a three to four year degree course devoted entirely to the study of clinical language sciences and communicative disorders. This qualifies them to work in any of the three main clinical areas. The course, which varies according to university, includes intensive study of core theoretical components underpinning competence to practice , Linguistics, Psychology and Medical science, in addition to the study of a range of communicative disorders in children and adults. Students are also expected to become familiar with a range of policies, processes and procedures relevant to working in different contexts, including health and education. The course is very demanding, and is assessed via coursework, exams and clinical placement. Some universities require students to assess and diagnose an ‘unseen client’ prior to completing their degree course; all require the completion of a pilot study related to the field of Speech and Language Therapy. Throughout the course, students undertake a variety of clinical placements in which their ability to practise is continually assessed. All courses require students to complete a certain amount of hours of clinical placement, although the structure of placement differs from course to course.
Upon qualifying SLT’s enter the profession as a newly-qualified practitioner. The recommended career course is that they then achieve a number of competencies, which qualify them to work autonomously. The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, the professional body representing Speech and Language Therapists in the UK, provides a framework of competencies which therapists are expected to achieve within 12–18 months of beginning clinical practice. Access to supervision during this period varies from trust to trust, and each individual therapist is expected to provide documentary evidence of competencies achieved to a senior colleague (usually a manager) who determines whether a therapist meets the required criteria for admission to the ‘full register’.
Speech and Language Therapists in the UK are required by law to register with the Health Professions Council, a regulatory body governing a range of health professions. The Health Professions Council has the power to discipline members who do not meet the rigorous standards for effective and safe clinical practice, and may ’strike off’ or deregister members who fail to maintain these standards.
In the United States, Speech Language Pathology practice is regulated by the laws of the individual states. However, by 2006, the minimal requirements to be a certified SLP member of the American Speech-Language Hearing Association were: a graduate degree in Speech-Language Pathology, which typically entails 2 years of post graduate work; a completed clinical fellowship year, which is generally employment for a year while supervised by a practicing SLP who is also ASHA certified; and passing the Praxis Series examination. The graduate degree work to acquire a Master’s in Speech-Language Pathology is rigorous and demanding, requiring many hours of supervised clinical practica, and intensive didactic coursework in medical sciences, phonetics, linguistics, phonology, scientific methodology, and other subjects.
Certification by ASHA is noted as carrying one’s “C”s. (Certificate of Clinical Competence) It is noted after an SLP’s name as: CCC-SLP.
In Australia, Speech Pathologists either undertake a four year undergraduate degree, or a two year Masters degree to qualify. These dual pathways are considered by Speech Pathology Australia to produce equally prepared graduates. To be eligible for optional membership of Speech Pathology Australia, students must study in one of the accredited courses outlined on their website. Speech Pathology degrees in Australia vary in curriculum, but always include streams teaching anatomy and physiology, professional practice, communication and swallowing disorders, and often some elementary psychology and audiology. Most include no or minimal elective subjects. All degrees include a heavy clinical component, and many also include a research component in final year. Once graduated, students become fully qualified Speech Pathologists and are eligible for any Level 1 position, without the need for an internship or general examination. Registration is only required in the state of Queensland, and membership of the professional organization is optional, although it is encouraged.
Methods of assessment
There are separate standardized assessment tools administered for infants, school-aged children, adolescents and adults. Assessments primarily examine the form, content, understanding and use of language, as well as articulation, and phonology. Oral motor and swallowing assessments often require specialized training which includes the use of bedside examination tools and endoscopic/modified barium radiology procedures.
Individuals may be referred to an SLP for the following: Traumatic brain injury; Stroke; Alzheimer’s disease and dementia; Cranial nerve damage; Progressive neurological conditions (Parkinson, ALS, etc); Developmental delay; Learning disability (speaking and listening); Autism Spectrum Disorders (including Asperger Syndrome); Genetic disorders that adversely affect speech, language and/or cognitive development; Injuries due to complications at birth; Feeding and swallowing concerns; Craniofacial anamolies that adversely affect speech, language and/or cognitive development; and Augmentative Alternative Communication needs.
There are myriad Speech-Language Assessment tools used for chidren and adults, depending on the area of need.
Patients/clients
Speech and language therapists work with:
Babies with feeding and swallowing difficulties
Children with mild, moderate or severe:
learning difficulties
physical disabilities, language delay
specific language impairment
specific difficulties in producing sounds (including vocalic r and lisps)
hearing impairment
cleft palate
stammering
autism/social interaction difficulties
dyslexia
voice disorders
Adults with eating and swallowing and/or communication problems following
stroke
head injury (Traumatic brain injury)
Parkinson’s disease
motor neuron disease
multiple sclerosis
Huntington’s disease
dementia
cancer of the head, neck and throat (including laryngectomy)
voice problems
mental health issues
learning difficulties, physical disabilities
stammering (dysfluency)
hearing impairment
transsexual women seeking voice therapy
In the United States, the cost of speech therapy for a child younger than three years old is likely covered by the state early intervention (zero to three) program.
In Britain, the majority of Speech and Language therapy is funded by the National Health Service (and increasingly, by partners in Education) meaning that initial assessment is available cost-free to all clients at the point of service, regardless of age or presenting problem. The large numbers of referrals contribute to high caseloads and long waiting lists, although this differs from area to area. To meet the needs of many of these clients, it has become necessary for many services to focus heavily on training and consultative models of service provision. The number of hours of direct therapy available to clients varies widely from trust to trust and most areas operate strict guidelines for prioritisation to meet the high clinical demand.
Place of work
Speech and language therapists work in community health centres, hospital wards and outpatient departments, mainstream and special schools, further education colleges, day centers and in their clients’ homes. Some now work in courtrooms, prisons and young offenders’ institutions.
Some speech and language therapists who work independently will see children and adults in their own homes, and may offer appointments on a Saturday.
Colleagues
SLTs/SLPs work closely with others involved with the client, for example difficulties with eating and drinking may also involve an occupational therapist. Speech and language therapists also work closely with parents and caregivers and other professionals, such as audiologists, teachers, nurses, dietitians, physiotherapists, and doctors.
Communication includes speech (articulation, intonation, rate, intensity), language (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics), both receptive and expressive language (including reading and writing), and non-verbal communication such as facial expression and gesture. Swallowing problems managed under speech therapy are problems in the oral, laryngeal, and/or pharyngeal stages of swallowing (not oesophageal).
Depending on the nature and severity of the disorder, common treatments may range from physical strengthening exercises, instructive or repetitive practice and drilling, to the use of audio-visual aids and introduction of strategies to facilitate functional communication. Speech therapy may also include sign language and the use of picture symbols (Diehl 2003).
The practice is called:
Speech-language pathology (SLP) in the United States and Canada
Speech and language therapy (SLT) in the United Kingdom, Ireland and South Africa
Speech pathology in Australia
Speech-language therapy in New Zealand
Other terms in use include speech therapy, logopaedics and phoniatrics.
Contents
1 Scope of practice
2 Professional roles
3 Education
4 Methods of assessment
5 Patients/clients
6 Place of work
7 Colleagues
8 See also
9 External links
Scope of practice
The practice of speech-language pathology involves:
Providing prevention, screening, consultation, assessment and diagnosis, treatment, intervention, management, counseling, and follow-up services for disorders of:
speech (i.e., phonation, articulation, fluency, resonance, and voice including aeromechanical components of respiration);
language (i.e., phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatic/social aspects of communication) including comprehension and expression in oral, written, graphic, and manual modalities; language processing; preliteracy and language-based literacy skills, including phonological awareness;
swallowing or other upper aerodigestive functions such as infant feeding and aeromechanical events (evaluation of esophageal function is for the purpose of referral to medical professionals);
cognitive aspects of communication (e.g., attention, memory, problem solving, executive functions).
sensory awareness related to communication, swallowing, or other upper aerodigestive functions.
Establishing augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) techniques and strategies including developing, selecting, and prescribing of such systems and devices (e.g., speech generating devices.)
Providing services to individuals with hearing loss and their families/caregivers (e.g.,auditory training; speechreading; speech and language intervention secondary to hearing loss; visual inspection and listening checks of amplification devices for the purpose of troubleshooting, including verification of appropriate battery voltage).
Screening hearing of individuals who can participate in conventional pure-tone air conduction methods, as well as screening for middle ear pathology through screening tympanometry for the purpose of referral of individuals for further evaluation and management.
Using instrumentation (e.g., videofluoroscopy, EMG, nasendoscopy, stroboscopy, computer technology) to observe, collect data, and measure parameters of communication and swallowing, or other upper aerodigestive functions in accordance with the principles of evidence-based practice.
Selecting, fitting, and establishing effective use of prosthetic/adaptive devices for communication, swallowing, or other upper aerodigestive functions (e.g., tracheoesophageal prostheses, speaking valves, electrolarynges). This does not include sensory devices used by individuals with hearing loss or other auditory perceptual deficits.
Collaborating in the assessment of central auditory processing disorders and providing intervention where there is evidence of speech, language, and/or other cognitivecommunication disorders.
Educating and counseling individuals, families, co-workers, educators, and other persons in the community regarding acceptance, adaptation, and decision makes about communication, swallowing, or other upper aerodigestive concerns.
Advocating for individuals through community awareness, education, and training programs to promote and facilitate access to full participation in communication, including the elimination of societal barriers.
Collaborating with and providing referrals and information to audiologists, educators, and health professionals as individual needs dictate.
Addressing behaviors (e.g., perseverative or disruptive actions) and environments (e.g., seating, positioning for swallowing safety or attention, communication opportunities) that affect communication, swallowing, or other upper aerodigestive functions.
Providing services to modify or enhance communication performance (e.g., accent modification, transgendered voice, care and improvement of the professional voice, personal/ professional communication effectiveness).
Recognizing the need to provide and appropriately accommodate diagnostic and treatment services to individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds and adjust treatment and assessment services according.
Professional roles
Speech-language pathologists serve individuals, families, groups, and the general public through a broad range of professional activities. They:
Identify, define, and diagnose disorders of human communication and swallowing and assist in localization and diagnosis of diseases and conditions.
Provide direct services using a variety of service delivery models to treat and/or address communication, swallowing, or other upper aerodigestive concerns.
Conduct research related to communication sciences and disorders, swallowing, or other upper aerodigestive functions.
Educate, supervise, and mentor future speech-language pathologists.
Serve as case managers and service delivery coordinators.
Administer and manage clinical and academic programs.
Educate and provide in-service training to families, caregivers, and other professionals.
Participate in outcomes measurement activities and use data to guide clinical decision making and determine the effectiveness of services provided in accordance with the principles of evidence-based practice.
Train, supervise, and manage speech-language pathology assistants and other support personnel.
Promote healthy lifestyle practices for the prevention of communication, hearing, swallowing, or other upper aerodigestive disorders.
Education
In the UK( United Kingdom) , SLTs undertake a three to four year degree course devoted entirely to the study of clinical language sciences and communicative disorders. This qualifies them to work in any of the three main clinical areas. The course, which varies according to university, includes intensive study of core theoretical components underpinning competence to practice , Linguistics, Psychology and Medical science, in addition to the study of a range of communicative disorders in children and adults. Students are also expected to become familiar with a range of policies, processes and procedures relevant to working in different contexts, including health and education. The course is very demanding, and is assessed via coursework, exams and clinical placement. Some universities require students to assess and diagnose an ‘unseen client’ prior to completing their degree course; all require the completion of a pilot study related to the field of Speech and Language Therapy. Throughout the course, students undertake a variety of clinical placements in which their ability to practise is continually assessed. All courses require students to complete a certain amount of hours of clinical placement, although the structure of placement differs from course to course.
Upon qualifying SLT’s enter the profession as a newly-qualified practitioner. The recommended career course is that they then achieve a number of competencies, which qualify them to work autonomously. The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, the professional body representing Speech and Language Therapists in the UK, provides a framework of competencies which therapists are expected to achieve within 12–18 months of beginning clinical practice. Access to supervision during this period varies from trust to trust, and each individual therapist is expected to provide documentary evidence of competencies achieved to a senior colleague (usually a manager) who determines whether a therapist meets the required criteria for admission to the ‘full register’.
Speech and Language Therapists in the UK are required by law to register with the Health Professions Council, a regulatory body governing a range of health professions. The Health Professions Council has the power to discipline members who do not meet the rigorous standards for effective and safe clinical practice, and may ’strike off’ or deregister members who fail to maintain these standards.
In the United States, Speech Language Pathology practice is regulated by the laws of the individual states. However, by 2006, the minimal requirements to be a certified SLP member of the American Speech-Language Hearing Association were: a graduate degree in Speech-Language Pathology, which typically entails 2 years of post graduate work; a completed clinical fellowship year, which is generally employment for a year while supervised by a practicing SLP who is also ASHA certified; and passing the Praxis Series examination. The graduate degree work to acquire a Master’s in Speech-Language Pathology is rigorous and demanding, requiring many hours of supervised clinical practica, and intensive didactic coursework in medical sciences, phonetics, linguistics, phonology, scientific methodology, and other subjects.
Certification by ASHA is noted as carrying one’s “C”s. (Certificate of Clinical Competence) It is noted after an SLP’s name as: CCC-SLP.
In Australia, Speech Pathologists either undertake a four year undergraduate degree, or a two year Masters degree to qualify. These dual pathways are considered by Speech Pathology Australia to produce equally prepared graduates. To be eligible for optional membership of Speech Pathology Australia, students must study in one of the accredited courses outlined on their website. Speech Pathology degrees in Australia vary in curriculum, but always include streams teaching anatomy and physiology, professional practice, communication and swallowing disorders, and often some elementary psychology and audiology. Most include no or minimal elective subjects. All degrees include a heavy clinical component, and many also include a research component in final year. Once graduated, students become fully qualified Speech Pathologists and are eligible for any Level 1 position, without the need for an internship or general examination. Registration is only required in the state of Queensland, and membership of the professional organization is optional, although it is encouraged.
Methods of assessment
There are separate standardized assessment tools administered for infants, school-aged children, adolescents and adults. Assessments primarily examine the form, content, understanding and use of language, as well as articulation, and phonology. Oral motor and swallowing assessments often require specialized training which includes the use of bedside examination tools and endoscopic/modified barium radiology procedures.
Individuals may be referred to an SLP for the following: Traumatic brain injury; Stroke; Alzheimer’s disease and dementia; Cranial nerve damage; Progressive neurological conditions (Parkinson, ALS, etc); Developmental delay; Learning disability (speaking and listening); Autism Spectrum Disorders (including Asperger Syndrome); Genetic disorders that adversely affect speech, language and/or cognitive development; Injuries due to complications at birth; Feeding and swallowing concerns; Craniofacial anamolies that adversely affect speech, language and/or cognitive development; and Augmentative Alternative Communication needs.
There are myriad Speech-Language Assessment tools used for chidren and adults, depending on the area of need.
Patients/clients
Speech and language therapists work with:
Babies with feeding and swallowing difficulties
Children with mild, moderate or severe:
learning difficulties
physical disabilities, language delay
specific language impairment
specific difficulties in producing sounds (including vocalic r and lisps)
hearing impairment
cleft palate
stammering
autism/social interaction difficulties
dyslexia
voice disorders
Adults with eating and swallowing and/or communication problems following
stroke
head injury (Traumatic brain injury)
Parkinson’s disease
motor neuron disease
multiple sclerosis
Huntington’s disease
dementia
cancer of the head, neck and throat (including laryngectomy)
voice problems
mental health issues
learning difficulties, physical disabilities
stammering (dysfluency)
hearing impairment
transsexual women seeking voice therapy
In the United States, the cost of speech therapy for a child younger than three years old is likely covered by the state early intervention (zero to three) program.
In Britain, the majority of Speech and Language therapy is funded by the National Health Service (and increasingly, by partners in Education) meaning that initial assessment is available cost-free to all clients at the point of service, regardless of age or presenting problem. The large numbers of referrals contribute to high caseloads and long waiting lists, although this differs from area to area. To meet the needs of many of these clients, it has become necessary for many services to focus heavily on training and consultative models of service provision. The number of hours of direct therapy available to clients varies widely from trust to trust and most areas operate strict guidelines for prioritisation to meet the high clinical demand.
Place of work
Speech and language therapists work in community health centres, hospital wards and outpatient departments, mainstream and special schools, further education colleges, day centers and in their clients’ homes. Some now work in courtrooms, prisons and young offenders’ institutions.
Some speech and language therapists who work independently will see children and adults in their own homes, and may offer appointments on a Saturday.
Colleagues
SLTs/SLPs work closely with others involved with the client, for example difficulties with eating and drinking may also involve an occupational therapist. Speech and language therapists also work closely with parents and caregivers and other professionals, such as audiologists, teachers, nurses, dietitians, physiotherapists, and doctors.
04 September 2008
Adaptive bikes give disabled riders freedom of mobility
Jacob Honeyman broke into a huge smile as his father, Hal Honeyman, pulled the 15-year-old's bicycle out of a trailer behind the family's St. Charles shop, The Bike Rack.
The bike boasts a polished dark green frame with the name of the model emblazoned on the side: The Adventurer 2000. It has three wheels like a tricycle, a padded seat with a back, and pedal straps that loop over Jacob's shoes.
It is perfectly modified for Jacob, who was born with cerebral palsy, which includes a number of neurological disorders that affect body movement and muscle coordination. He grabbed its adjustable handlebars and pulled the bike to him before his father could move to help him out of his wheelchair.
"The bike is a pretty simple solution to some complex problems," Honeyman said.
Honeyman has spent the past 12 years fitting children and adults with disabilities all over the country on adaptive bikes.
The Bike Rack, 2930 Campton Hills Road, has been family owned and operated for 35 years, he said, and the Honeymans are a bicycling family. That didn't change when he and his wife, Julie, had their first son, Dane, 23, and it wasn't going to change several years later when they had triplets, Emily, Clare and Jacob.
Jacob's bike just needed a few modifications.
"Before we had our triplets, I think I was fairly compassionate and understanding of people," Honeyman said. "Once you get into this world, you realize how many people this is. There is a need out there. A lot of it is an invisible community until you get involved."
Honeyman founded the nonprofit Project Mobility: Cycles for Life Inc. about 12 years ago "to put a positive spin on wheelchairs and adaptive bikes" and began operating Creative Mobility out of The Bike Rack to find bikes for other children and adults with disabilities.
He created the Versa Trike, a low-riding, three-wheeled model with an upright seat, when nothing to fit specific disabilities could be found. Honeyman has hosted, supported and attended hundreds of adaptive cycling events and activities and collaborated with hospitals, schools, park districts and other organizations.
And it's all because of Jacob.
"(A doctor once) told him, 'Jacob, do you realize you're responsible for thousands of kids riding bicycles all over the world who would never have been able to ride a bike?'" Honeyman said.
Next month, Jacob will continue raising awareness about the importance of mobility for people with disabilities. He will be the run starter at the first Run for DayOne at 8 a.m. Sunday, Sunday, at St. Charles' Pottawatomie Park.
The event will be hosted by Geneva-based DayOne Network, which provides service coordination and advocacy for more than 2,900 children and adults with developmental disabilities and delays in Kane and Kendall counties and Hanover Township. About 500 people are expected to participate in a professionally timed 5K run and a wheelchair- and stroller-accessible family walk that will be shorter than 1 mile.
Executive Director Joyce Helander said DayOne Network asked Jacob to start the event because of its theme of mobility awareness.
"That's important because a number of people that we serve also have physical disabilities," Helander said. "It's important to raise awareness. It's important they have access to the community, be able to enjoy their community and their parks."
That's what a bike can do for children and adults with disabilities in addition to its physical benefits, according to Honeyman.
"When you're in a chair, you have a tendency to feel trapped. When you get on a bike, you're free of that," he said. "You feel the wind on your face, and you're out there with everybody else, with all your peers."
The bike boasts a polished dark green frame with the name of the model emblazoned on the side: The Adventurer 2000. It has three wheels like a tricycle, a padded seat with a back, and pedal straps that loop over Jacob's shoes.
It is perfectly modified for Jacob, who was born with cerebral palsy, which includes a number of neurological disorders that affect body movement and muscle coordination. He grabbed its adjustable handlebars and pulled the bike to him before his father could move to help him out of his wheelchair.
"The bike is a pretty simple solution to some complex problems," Honeyman said.
Honeyman has spent the past 12 years fitting children and adults with disabilities all over the country on adaptive bikes.
The Bike Rack, 2930 Campton Hills Road, has been family owned and operated for 35 years, he said, and the Honeymans are a bicycling family. That didn't change when he and his wife, Julie, had their first son, Dane, 23, and it wasn't going to change several years later when they had triplets, Emily, Clare and Jacob.
Jacob's bike just needed a few modifications.
"Before we had our triplets, I think I was fairly compassionate and understanding of people," Honeyman said. "Once you get into this world, you realize how many people this is. There is a need out there. A lot of it is an invisible community until you get involved."
Honeyman founded the nonprofit Project Mobility: Cycles for Life Inc. about 12 years ago "to put a positive spin on wheelchairs and adaptive bikes" and began operating Creative Mobility out of The Bike Rack to find bikes for other children and adults with disabilities.
He created the Versa Trike, a low-riding, three-wheeled model with an upright seat, when nothing to fit specific disabilities could be found. Honeyman has hosted, supported and attended hundreds of adaptive cycling events and activities and collaborated with hospitals, schools, park districts and other organizations.
And it's all because of Jacob.
"(A doctor once) told him, 'Jacob, do you realize you're responsible for thousands of kids riding bicycles all over the world who would never have been able to ride a bike?'" Honeyman said.
Next month, Jacob will continue raising awareness about the importance of mobility for people with disabilities. He will be the run starter at the first Run for DayOne at 8 a.m. Sunday, Sunday, at St. Charles' Pottawatomie Park.
The event will be hosted by Geneva-based DayOne Network, which provides service coordination and advocacy for more than 2,900 children and adults with developmental disabilities and delays in Kane and Kendall counties and Hanover Township. About 500 people are expected to participate in a professionally timed 5K run and a wheelchair- and stroller-accessible family walk that will be shorter than 1 mile.
Executive Director Joyce Helander said DayOne Network asked Jacob to start the event because of its theme of mobility awareness.
"That's important because a number of people that we serve also have physical disabilities," Helander said. "It's important to raise awareness. It's important they have access to the community, be able to enjoy their community and their parks."
That's what a bike can do for children and adults with disabilities in addition to its physical benefits, according to Honeyman.
"When you're in a chair, you have a tendency to feel trapped. When you get on a bike, you're free of that," he said. "You feel the wind on your face, and you're out there with everybody else, with all your peers."
30 August 2008
Battling meningitis
Bruce Langoulant is on a mission to raise awareness of the insidious effects of meningitis.
MENINGITIS can destroy the brain and body within 24 hours of contracting the disease. Perth-based Bruce Langoulant found out the heart-wrenching way in 1989 when his second daughter, Ashleigh, at six months old, was rushed to hospital.
It was a hot, Christmas season in Western Australia when Ashleigh developed a fever. But Bruce’s wife, Jenni, did not suspect anything unusual when she brought her to their regular general physician for a check-up.
But the next day, the doctor felt compelled to call and asked the Langoulants to bring their baby for him to re-examine. It became apparent that Ashleigh had more than a fever. Her listlessness and the red rashes on her little face were tell-tale signs of meningitis. The disease can cause 20% of its sufferers to experience life-long disabilities, and spells death for another 8%.
Bruce Langoulant’s family. Ashleigh is in the middle.
Up until then, Ashleigh was a picture of health. She met every developmental milestone. A video of her as a baby shows her crawling cheerfully, exploring her little world.
But when the bacterial pneumococcal meningitis attacked her brain and spinal cord, Ashleigh lost her sight, hearing and mobility. For the next 18 months, Ashleigh lived in a world of darkness before she regained her sight.
But at 19, she remains deaf and has to undergo regular physiotherapy to tone her muscles following the loss of control of movement caused by cerebral palsy. She is also taking medication for epilepsy.
As Bruce notes in his recently launched book, Meningitis: A Tragedy by Installment, “Meningitis is an insidious illness occurring in ones and twos across the country on a regular basis. It is like a tragedy, but by instalments.” His conclusion is based on the 300 families across Australia who responded to a survey he initiated through the newspapers.
Ashleigh’s debilitating condition means she has to be cared for round the clock. Bruce and Jenni take turns to clean and feed her. They have two other daughters – Jessica, 22, and Courtney, 16.
Carrying her, wheeling her and dressing her are part of Bruce’s routine. Because Ashleigh is unable to communicate in the conventional way, it can be tough at times for the family, especially when she is about to have her menses. “Ashleigh is like a six-month-old trapped in the body of a 19-year-old,” says Bruce.
He recently flew in to Kuala Lumpur on the invitation of a newly formed parents support group called Pro-active Parents Group.
Determined to help other families avoid the potentially devastating disease, Bruce became a parent advocate in 1992.
Over the past 16 years, Bruce has been diligently raising awareness, lobbying and mobilising parents and the medical fraternity to work together towards making informed decisions.
He established the Meningitis Centre in Australia. He also serves as chairman of the Disability Services Commission, a governmental department in Western Australia that manages accommodation, therapy and support services to families and individuals who have physical and neurological disabilities.
Bruce also travels overseas regularly in his capacity as president of the Confederation of Meningitis Organisations that connects parents support groups globally with health and research organisations.
In Australia, for instance, Bruce was instrumental in getting the government to mandate free pneumococcal immunisation whereby babies born from Jan 1, 2005, receive three doses of vaccines against meningitis at two, four and six months. The elderly over 65, and children born between Jan 1, 2003, and Dec 31, 2004, are also vaccinated.
(In Malaysia, immunisation against pneumococcal meningitis is optional and is available in private clinics).
Bruce admits there had been times when he and wife asked themselves: “Would we have done it differently if we knew about meningitis?” Not wanting other families to suffer the same fate, Bruce is driven to do his utmost to reach out to as many parents as possible.
Bruce is well aware that he is pitted against the global anti-vaccine group which asserts that certain vaccines can impair the immune system and the brain. For instance, the triple antigen for mumps, measles and rubella had been blamed for the rise in autism.
But he clearly believes vaccination against diseases outweighs such fears. “We have to accept the fact as the world population grows, with the attendant impact on hygiene, health and resources, we can expect more vaccinations,” he asserts.
Bruce cautions parents who choose to delay or abstain from vaccinating their children. “Ultimately, parents must take responsibility for the choices they make for their children.”
Not one to blame doctors who miss the signs or misdiagnose, Bruce urges medical professionals to work with parents. “If the parents are coming back to see you with their child, don’t treat them like they are over-emotional, out of control. Work with them.”
In the end, like all doting parents, Bruce’s hope for Ashleigh is for her to be safe, healthy and loved.
One Voice is a monthly column which serves as a platform for professionals, parents and careproviders of children with learning difficulties. Feedback on the column can be sent to dignitytm.net.my. For enquiries of services and support groups, call Malaysian Care ( 03 90582102) or Dignity & Services ( 03-77255569).
Danger signs
Symptoms of meningitis in infants:
Fever, possibly with cold hands and feet
Refusing feeds or vomiting
High-pitched moaning, cry or whimpering
Dislike being handled or fretful
Neck retraction with arching of back
Blank and staring expression
Child is difficult to wake, lethargic
Pale, blotchy complexion
Floppy or stiff or jerking movements
Symptoms can appear in any order and may not all be present.
Source: The Meningitis Centre (www.menin gitis.com.au).
MENINGITIS can destroy the brain and body within 24 hours of contracting the disease. Perth-based Bruce Langoulant found out the heart-wrenching way in 1989 when his second daughter, Ashleigh, at six months old, was rushed to hospital.
It was a hot, Christmas season in Western Australia when Ashleigh developed a fever. But Bruce’s wife, Jenni, did not suspect anything unusual when she brought her to their regular general physician for a check-up.
But the next day, the doctor felt compelled to call and asked the Langoulants to bring their baby for him to re-examine. It became apparent that Ashleigh had more than a fever. Her listlessness and the red rashes on her little face were tell-tale signs of meningitis. The disease can cause 20% of its sufferers to experience life-long disabilities, and spells death for another 8%.
Bruce Langoulant’s family. Ashleigh is in the middle.
Up until then, Ashleigh was a picture of health. She met every developmental milestone. A video of her as a baby shows her crawling cheerfully, exploring her little world.
But when the bacterial pneumococcal meningitis attacked her brain and spinal cord, Ashleigh lost her sight, hearing and mobility. For the next 18 months, Ashleigh lived in a world of darkness before she regained her sight.
But at 19, she remains deaf and has to undergo regular physiotherapy to tone her muscles following the loss of control of movement caused by cerebral palsy. She is also taking medication for epilepsy.
As Bruce notes in his recently launched book, Meningitis: A Tragedy by Installment, “Meningitis is an insidious illness occurring in ones and twos across the country on a regular basis. It is like a tragedy, but by instalments.” His conclusion is based on the 300 families across Australia who responded to a survey he initiated through the newspapers.
Ashleigh’s debilitating condition means she has to be cared for round the clock. Bruce and Jenni take turns to clean and feed her. They have two other daughters – Jessica, 22, and Courtney, 16.
Carrying her, wheeling her and dressing her are part of Bruce’s routine. Because Ashleigh is unable to communicate in the conventional way, it can be tough at times for the family, especially when she is about to have her menses. “Ashleigh is like a six-month-old trapped in the body of a 19-year-old,” says Bruce.
He recently flew in to Kuala Lumpur on the invitation of a newly formed parents support group called Pro-active Parents Group.
Determined to help other families avoid the potentially devastating disease, Bruce became a parent advocate in 1992.
Over the past 16 years, Bruce has been diligently raising awareness, lobbying and mobilising parents and the medical fraternity to work together towards making informed decisions.
He established the Meningitis Centre in Australia. He also serves as chairman of the Disability Services Commission, a governmental department in Western Australia that manages accommodation, therapy and support services to families and individuals who have physical and neurological disabilities.
Bruce also travels overseas regularly in his capacity as president of the Confederation of Meningitis Organisations that connects parents support groups globally with health and research organisations.
In Australia, for instance, Bruce was instrumental in getting the government to mandate free pneumococcal immunisation whereby babies born from Jan 1, 2005, receive three doses of vaccines against meningitis at two, four and six months. The elderly over 65, and children born between Jan 1, 2003, and Dec 31, 2004, are also vaccinated.
(In Malaysia, immunisation against pneumococcal meningitis is optional and is available in private clinics).
Bruce admits there had been times when he and wife asked themselves: “Would we have done it differently if we knew about meningitis?” Not wanting other families to suffer the same fate, Bruce is driven to do his utmost to reach out to as many parents as possible.
Bruce is well aware that he is pitted against the global anti-vaccine group which asserts that certain vaccines can impair the immune system and the brain. For instance, the triple antigen for mumps, measles and rubella had been blamed for the rise in autism.
But he clearly believes vaccination against diseases outweighs such fears. “We have to accept the fact as the world population grows, with the attendant impact on hygiene, health and resources, we can expect more vaccinations,” he asserts.
Bruce cautions parents who choose to delay or abstain from vaccinating their children. “Ultimately, parents must take responsibility for the choices they make for their children.”
Not one to blame doctors who miss the signs or misdiagnose, Bruce urges medical professionals to work with parents. “If the parents are coming back to see you with their child, don’t treat them like they are over-emotional, out of control. Work with them.”
In the end, like all doting parents, Bruce’s hope for Ashleigh is for her to be safe, healthy and loved.
One Voice is a monthly column which serves as a platform for professionals, parents and careproviders of children with learning difficulties. Feedback on the column can be sent to dignitytm.net.my. For enquiries of services and support groups, call Malaysian Care ( 03 90582102) or Dignity & Services ( 03-77255569).
Danger signs
Symptoms of meningitis in infants:
Fever, possibly with cold hands and feet
Refusing feeds or vomiting
High-pitched moaning, cry or whimpering
Dislike being handled or fretful
Neck retraction with arching of back
Blank and staring expression
Child is difficult to wake, lethargic
Pale, blotchy complexion
Floppy or stiff or jerking movements
Symptoms can appear in any order and may not all be present.
Source: The Meningitis Centre (www.menin gitis.com.au).
20 August 2008
Law of Attraction
Patience,is a vertue .A smile even though your in pain; is infectious.who knows why I was born with a developmental disability?I do know I struggle without any real solid Government aid ,mostly due to not knowing who or how to navigate the system.I also feel social workers and the system are plagued with a work load by client who want an easier lifestyle. What is a disability? the word means :un-able to do.Very few of us are truly disabled.A better focus should be on one's degree's of ability.I have always worked to support myself mostly taking paycuts to have the job.I also have gone to school to achieve an AA degree in Social Services despite have moderate LD. There is a theory that says one will influence by law of attraction ,what does this mean? I smile ,Iam giving and cooperative but I still am measuredby my not quite average ability which has placed me in an un-equal and psychological depression as to hopelessness and frustration.I have played w/many Stars in my pursuit of my dreams:The late :Waylon Jennings In 82,Mac Wiesman 81,JJ Cale On a Jam in76.I have loved every minute But I still haven't achieved a consistancy in the music field people want "Blonde hair ,Blue eyed and moderately talanted 19 yr. olds.! All I have ever asked for is a ligitamate chance to live my dream and be self sufficient. I will someday meet some one who judges on heart ,and desire and talent . Go after your dreams ! Never Give In or Up.Your Dreams are important too.
15 August 2008
Tropic Thunder Blasted by Disability-Rights Groups
By Terri Mauro
Tropic Thunder, the Ben Stiller comedy opening Wednesday, is being sold as an equal-opportunity offender, the kind of film that has Jack Black making fart jokes and Robert Downey Jr. in blackface. You don't expect a lot of sensitivity from a rowdy R-rated satire on the excesses of Hollywood actors and war movies. But advocates for people with developmental disabilities are accusing the filmmakers of crossing the line between good dirty fun and hate speech.
Disability-rights groups including The Arc, Special Olympics, and the National Down Syndrome Congress are not amused by a subplot involving Stiller's character, an action-movie star who made an unsuccessful stab at Oscar respectability by playing a man with intellectual disabilities in a movie called Simple Jack. Well, we'd say "a man with intellectual disabilities." The film says "retard." A lot. Journalist Patricia E. Bauer, who has been covering the brewing controversy in her Disability News blog, shared this approximate tally after an advance viewing:
Number of repetitions of the word "retard" or its variations: At least 16 in the "full retard" scene alone, not counting the uses of words like "idiot," "moron," "moronical," "imbecile," "stupid," "dumb" and "the dumbest M*****F***** that ever lived." All are used to describe the character of Simple Jack, who is described in an introductory segment as a "mentally impaired farm hand who can talk to animals."
That "full retard" scene (see a video on the About.com Movies site) involves Stiller and Downey discussing the perils of getting too far into a role like "Simple Jack," with Downey's more accomplished actor character advising Stiller's to "never go full retard." That phrase already landed on a t-shirt, and the Simple Jack movie had its own website for a while featuring the tagline, "Once Upon a Time ... There Was a Retard."
The film has its Los Angeles premiere today; also today, screenings are scheduled for disability-rights groups in the hope of heading off protests. Based on Bauer's observations from her early screening, it seems as though the offensive material is pervasive enough that it would be difficult to excise quickly. DreamWorks, the studio behind the film, has already indicated that no such cuts will be made. Perhaps they're hoping that advocates will decide it's no big deal once the material is viewed in context.
Or, more likely, they don't care. I have an unhappy suspicion that the target audience for a movie like this is one that will be more eager to see it if they think it's drawing protests. When you're trying to cultivate an air of outrageousness, picketers and boycotts kind of do your selling for you, don't they? Especially when you're offending a group that the public at large doesn't exactly bend over backwards to be respectful toward. In a way, I'm more worried about my daughter's English teacher who thought "Mongoloid" was a perfectly good word to put on a vocabulary test than I am about a deliberately offensive comedy using an offensive word offensively.
Except ... does this comedy really mean to be as heedlessly offensive as it claims? They had me going for a while, until I read this exchange in an interview with the stars in this week's Entertainment Weekly about the potential for problems with Downey's skin-darkening character:
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The challenge with that character was to find the right line. You want to make fun of this pompous actor, but if you play it wrong, it verges on being minstrel-like. Your costar Brandon T. Jackson told me there was a scene in the script where Osiris uses the N-word and that he said it went over the line.
ROBERT DOWNEY JR.: Brandon might have saved the movie that day.
BEN STILLER: For sure. We were rehearsing in Hawaii and we got to that scene and I said to him, ''What do you think of this?'' Brandon said, ''This feels wrong.'' It was definitely a constant process of feeling it out.
Hmm. Feeling it out. Finding the line between rowdy fun and hate speech. How handy it must be to have somebody on set who can let you know when you've gone "over the line." I was reminded of something Bauer wrote early in her coverage of the controversy, in response to that "equal-opportunity offender" excuse:
People of different races surely were involved in the making of this film, and were able to express opinions about which references were humorous and which might have gone too far. So were people with different sexual orientations. How many people with cognitive disabilities were involved in the making of this film? Were any people with cognitive disabilities involved in focus groups for this film? How many are employed by Dreamworks, or by parent company Paramount?
I doubt there are any good answers to those questions. I've had respect for this studio and these actors in the past, and it sort of amazes me that it would have occurred to no one to get a reality check on this plot from someone involved with Special Olympics or The Arc. For those who think all this furor is just proof that these organizations can't take a joke, it's instructive to look at the relationship between Special Olympics and another crude comedy that played on stereotypes, the Farrelly Brothers' The Ringer. That film was enthusiastically embraced and promoted by Special Olympics, and not for nothing, employed many actors with intellectual disabilities who were in a position to provide a counterpoint to those stereotypes.
No such counterpoint is offered in Tropic Thunder, and not much creative thought seems to have gone into this particular storyline. And that's too bad, because I don't think actors who take on disability roles as awards-bait are a bad target for satire. I've read interviews with actors who seem to believe that they understand everything there is to know about living with a disability because they played a disabled character, and I'd be willing to laugh at that. Using self-consciously politically correct language, certainly a valid target in liberal Hollywood, might actually have made the satire sharper. It ought to have been possible to make this about mocking self-absorbed and condescending actors, as the filmmakers claim was their aim, and not about mocking people with disabilities.
Falling back on an offensive word to get laughs is lazy comedy, and if the film's potential fans aren't bothered by the language, they should be bothered by that.
What do you make of all this? Will you boycott the film? Would you have seen it in the first place? Do you think protests will hurt the film or help it? Share your thoughts
Tropic Thunder, the Ben Stiller comedy opening Wednesday, is being sold as an equal-opportunity offender, the kind of film that has Jack Black making fart jokes and Robert Downey Jr. in blackface. You don't expect a lot of sensitivity from a rowdy R-rated satire on the excesses of Hollywood actors and war movies. But advocates for people with developmental disabilities are accusing the filmmakers of crossing the line between good dirty fun and hate speech.
Disability-rights groups including The Arc, Special Olympics, and the National Down Syndrome Congress are not amused by a subplot involving Stiller's character, an action-movie star who made an unsuccessful stab at Oscar respectability by playing a man with intellectual disabilities in a movie called Simple Jack. Well, we'd say "a man with intellectual disabilities." The film says "retard." A lot. Journalist Patricia E. Bauer, who has been covering the brewing controversy in her Disability News blog, shared this approximate tally after an advance viewing:
Number of repetitions of the word "retard" or its variations: At least 16 in the "full retard" scene alone, not counting the uses of words like "idiot," "moron," "moronical," "imbecile," "stupid," "dumb" and "the dumbest M*****F***** that ever lived." All are used to describe the character of Simple Jack, who is described in an introductory segment as a "mentally impaired farm hand who can talk to animals."
That "full retard" scene (see a video on the About.com Movies site) involves Stiller and Downey discussing the perils of getting too far into a role like "Simple Jack," with Downey's more accomplished actor character advising Stiller's to "never go full retard." That phrase already landed on a t-shirt, and the Simple Jack movie had its own website for a while featuring the tagline, "Once Upon a Time ... There Was a Retard."
The film has its Los Angeles premiere today; also today, screenings are scheduled for disability-rights groups in the hope of heading off protests. Based on Bauer's observations from her early screening, it seems as though the offensive material is pervasive enough that it would be difficult to excise quickly. DreamWorks, the studio behind the film, has already indicated that no such cuts will be made. Perhaps they're hoping that advocates will decide it's no big deal once the material is viewed in context.
Or, more likely, they don't care. I have an unhappy suspicion that the target audience for a movie like this is one that will be more eager to see it if they think it's drawing protests. When you're trying to cultivate an air of outrageousness, picketers and boycotts kind of do your selling for you, don't they? Especially when you're offending a group that the public at large doesn't exactly bend over backwards to be respectful toward. In a way, I'm more worried about my daughter's English teacher who thought "Mongoloid" was a perfectly good word to put on a vocabulary test than I am about a deliberately offensive comedy using an offensive word offensively.
Except ... does this comedy really mean to be as heedlessly offensive as it claims? They had me going for a while, until I read this exchange in an interview with the stars in this week's Entertainment Weekly about the potential for problems with Downey's skin-darkening character:
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The challenge with that character was to find the right line. You want to make fun of this pompous actor, but if you play it wrong, it verges on being minstrel-like. Your costar Brandon T. Jackson told me there was a scene in the script where Osiris uses the N-word and that he said it went over the line.
ROBERT DOWNEY JR.: Brandon might have saved the movie that day.
BEN STILLER: For sure. We were rehearsing in Hawaii and we got to that scene and I said to him, ''What do you think of this?'' Brandon said, ''This feels wrong.'' It was definitely a constant process of feeling it out.
Hmm. Feeling it out. Finding the line between rowdy fun and hate speech. How handy it must be to have somebody on set who can let you know when you've gone "over the line." I was reminded of something Bauer wrote early in her coverage of the controversy, in response to that "equal-opportunity offender" excuse:
People of different races surely were involved in the making of this film, and were able to express opinions about which references were humorous and which might have gone too far. So were people with different sexual orientations. How many people with cognitive disabilities were involved in the making of this film? Were any people with cognitive disabilities involved in focus groups for this film? How many are employed by Dreamworks, or by parent company Paramount?
I doubt there are any good answers to those questions. I've had respect for this studio and these actors in the past, and it sort of amazes me that it would have occurred to no one to get a reality check on this plot from someone involved with Special Olympics or The Arc. For those who think all this furor is just proof that these organizations can't take a joke, it's instructive to look at the relationship between Special Olympics and another crude comedy that played on stereotypes, the Farrelly Brothers' The Ringer. That film was enthusiastically embraced and promoted by Special Olympics, and not for nothing, employed many actors with intellectual disabilities who were in a position to provide a counterpoint to those stereotypes.
No such counterpoint is offered in Tropic Thunder, and not much creative thought seems to have gone into this particular storyline. And that's too bad, because I don't think actors who take on disability roles as awards-bait are a bad target for satire. I've read interviews with actors who seem to believe that they understand everything there is to know about living with a disability because they played a disabled character, and I'd be willing to laugh at that. Using self-consciously politically correct language, certainly a valid target in liberal Hollywood, might actually have made the satire sharper. It ought to have been possible to make this about mocking self-absorbed and condescending actors, as the filmmakers claim was their aim, and not about mocking people with disabilities.
Falling back on an offensive word to get laughs is lazy comedy, and if the film's potential fans aren't bothered by the language, they should be bothered by that.
What do you make of all this? Will you boycott the film? Would you have seen it in the first place? Do you think protests will hurt the film or help it? Share your thoughts
09 August 2008
Creative Hands therapy benefits those with limited mobility
Art meets medicine in a unique form of vocational therapy that employees of Avenues adult vocational rehabilitation program in Pottville are learning.
Through the Creative Hands pottery program, which began last month, employees are learning a new skill that also has therapeutic benefits, said Denise Keitsock, the program supervisor at Lessie’s Greenhouse and Gift Shop, a supervised vocational rehabilitation workshop for individuals who are physically and/or mentally challenged.
Working with the pliable clay increases and improves strength, flexibility and dexterity, which is particularly beneficial for those who may have limited or impaired mobility or stiffness in their fingers, hands and upper body, Keitsock said.
“It’s also a real good way to build confidence and self-esteem, and a sense of achievement,” she said. “The pottery workshop is one of the many things Avenues employees are learning which will help them seek employment in the competitive work force.”
Approximately 30 adults work in the supervised workshop, which is located in the Avenues building at 2 Park St., Agricultural Park, Pottsville.
Mary Byrne, owner of the Mad Potter, Pottsville, helped the group get started by donating the use of her kiln to fire the molded pieces.
“When I first heard about it, I thought it was an excellent idea,” she said. “Working with clay is very calming, very relaxing; I have customers all the time who tell me that it’s their form of therapy. And it does give a real sense of accomplishment. You’re taking a piece of mud, and turning it into something useful, like a coffee mug or a plate, a bowl. It’s a creative outlet.”
Using their hands to press and shape the clay, the employees design the brown stoneware into ashtrays, bowls, birdfeeders, plates and other functional items.
“Every piece is as unique as each individual,” Keitsock said.
They’re called pinch pots because they’re created by pinching the clay, she said.
Employees in the pottery workshop work on their projects in the activity room, and when the pieces are finished, they’re delivered to Byrne’s shop at 6 S. Centre St., where she fires them in her kiln. The finished work is then sold in the Avenues gift shop.
Many of the employees in the pottery workshop also work in the carpentry and greenhouse occupational therapy program at Avenues.
The greenhouse is named after Lessie Weaver, the late daughter of Mal Weaver Bartram, a founding member of United Cerebral Palsy of Schuylkill, Carbon and Northumberland counties.
The agency was founded as UCP in 1952 by a group of parents, and now serves the diverse needs of people with cerebral palsy as well as many different disabilities, including Down syndrome, autism and pervasive developmental disorder.
When the name was changed to Avenues in 2004, the UCP Greenhouse was renamed as a tribute to Bartram’s daughter, who suffered from cerebral palsy.
In the greenhouse program, Avenues employees learn all types of planting skills, working with greenhouse supervisors and program specialists.
They grow seasonal flowers that they sell to the public during seasonal community sales, as well as balloon bouquets, gift baskets, seasonal items, dried arrangements and other creative items.
In the Trash to Treasures carpentry program employees take apart, refinish and paint old donated items, and transform them into decorative and functional household objects like coat-racks, plant stands, shelves, furniture, bookcases, tables and picture frames.
Through the Creative Hands pottery program, which began last month, employees are learning a new skill that also has therapeutic benefits, said Denise Keitsock, the program supervisor at Lessie’s Greenhouse and Gift Shop, a supervised vocational rehabilitation workshop for individuals who are physically and/or mentally challenged.
Working with the pliable clay increases and improves strength, flexibility and dexterity, which is particularly beneficial for those who may have limited or impaired mobility or stiffness in their fingers, hands and upper body, Keitsock said.
“It’s also a real good way to build confidence and self-esteem, and a sense of achievement,” she said. “The pottery workshop is one of the many things Avenues employees are learning which will help them seek employment in the competitive work force.”
Approximately 30 adults work in the supervised workshop, which is located in the Avenues building at 2 Park St., Agricultural Park, Pottsville.
Mary Byrne, owner of the Mad Potter, Pottsville, helped the group get started by donating the use of her kiln to fire the molded pieces.
“When I first heard about it, I thought it was an excellent idea,” she said. “Working with clay is very calming, very relaxing; I have customers all the time who tell me that it’s their form of therapy. And it does give a real sense of accomplishment. You’re taking a piece of mud, and turning it into something useful, like a coffee mug or a plate, a bowl. It’s a creative outlet.”
Using their hands to press and shape the clay, the employees design the brown stoneware into ashtrays, bowls, birdfeeders, plates and other functional items.
“Every piece is as unique as each individual,” Keitsock said.
They’re called pinch pots because they’re created by pinching the clay, she said.
Employees in the pottery workshop work on their projects in the activity room, and when the pieces are finished, they’re delivered to Byrne’s shop at 6 S. Centre St., where she fires them in her kiln. The finished work is then sold in the Avenues gift shop.
Many of the employees in the pottery workshop also work in the carpentry and greenhouse occupational therapy program at Avenues.
The greenhouse is named after Lessie Weaver, the late daughter of Mal Weaver Bartram, a founding member of United Cerebral Palsy of Schuylkill, Carbon and Northumberland counties.
The agency was founded as UCP in 1952 by a group of parents, and now serves the diverse needs of people with cerebral palsy as well as many different disabilities, including Down syndrome, autism and pervasive developmental disorder.
When the name was changed to Avenues in 2004, the UCP Greenhouse was renamed as a tribute to Bartram’s daughter, who suffered from cerebral palsy.
In the greenhouse program, Avenues employees learn all types of planting skills, working with greenhouse supervisors and program specialists.
They grow seasonal flowers that they sell to the public during seasonal community sales, as well as balloon bouquets, gift baskets, seasonal items, dried arrangements and other creative items.
In the Trash to Treasures carpentry program employees take apart, refinish and paint old donated items, and transform them into decorative and functional household objects like coat-racks, plant stands, shelves, furniture, bookcases, tables and picture frames.
02 August 2008
A War Against the Enemy
The canopy shines down upon me with it's bright beautiful light, spurring me on with its powder blue sky's to keep on keeping on. Its warm, soft fibres wrap me up in a comfortable, soothing blanket where I have been blessed to have people who care about me, and can guide me, and help me, and lead me to problem solve, and fix this 2 month old frustration and dilemma.
It is indeed a blessing, because I was beginning to wonder if I would ever get this thing working again. I am so connected to writing and sharing, and touching other individuals lives who have Cerebral Palsy, a learning disability, and any other kind of developmental delay; that I do not know what I would do if I couldn't write, connect, or reach out in the way that I do.
Thus, I want to thank all of you for being patient with me as I keep moving forward to make this blog and my site the best you expect it to be. I welcome all your suggestions and kind words, as I continue to fight the good fight and continue to speak up for the rights of people with disabilities and advocate on your behalf!
I will climb the highest mountain, and speak the truths as I see them. It has been well over thirty years since I have started on this path and no one, no where, no how, will stop me from empowering and inspiring and leading the way to real solidarity in the world we live in today. We must forge forward, together, in unison. We must do this by continuing to break down the walls and the berries that separate and divide us. We must keep our chins up, and face our foes head on, and we must continue our battles in a constructive, positive, reaffirming way. We will succeed, and keep succeeding, and conquering, but only if we lend our hands to another.
If you want to wage a war against discrimination, or in any mater- we must all work together in partnership and truly help each other across the board like I was today, and yesterday, from a fellow friend. If we all find it within ourselves to help or lend a helping hand to one another we will all better ourselves.
It is indeed a blessing, because I was beginning to wonder if I would ever get this thing working again. I am so connected to writing and sharing, and touching other individuals lives who have Cerebral Palsy, a learning disability, and any other kind of developmental delay; that I do not know what I would do if I couldn't write, connect, or reach out in the way that I do.
Thus, I want to thank all of you for being patient with me as I keep moving forward to make this blog and my site the best you expect it to be. I welcome all your suggestions and kind words, as I continue to fight the good fight and continue to speak up for the rights of people with disabilities and advocate on your behalf!
I will climb the highest mountain, and speak the truths as I see them. It has been well over thirty years since I have started on this path and no one, no where, no how, will stop me from empowering and inspiring and leading the way to real solidarity in the world we live in today. We must forge forward, together, in unison. We must do this by continuing to break down the walls and the berries that separate and divide us. We must keep our chins up, and face our foes head on, and we must continue our battles in a constructive, positive, reaffirming way. We will succeed, and keep succeeding, and conquering, but only if we lend our hands to another.
If you want to wage a war against discrimination, or in any mater- we must all work together in partnership and truly help each other across the board like I was today, and yesterday, from a fellow friend. If we all find it within ourselves to help or lend a helping hand to one another we will all better ourselves.
01 August 2008
Valuing Who We Are
The days of January 2008 have almost passed us by. The rain has drenched the grown, the snow covers the mountain tops, and the sun tries to shine brightly through the grayish clouds. Pretty soon, it will be Valentine's day where partners send flowers and roses valuing their significant other. Will we stand alone or will we too be valued?
In the Oxford English Dictionary, the definition for the word valued is...the regard that something is held to deserve; importance or worth. Are we and our lives held with value or worth? Do others accept us for who and what we are? Disability, silent or not? Do we accept others and ourselves with the sensitivities we have as being people (with Cerebral Palsy or a learning disability)? Even though, we have C.P., a learning disability, have scoliosis, a developmental delay, arthritis, or whatever our disability may be- WE are still men and women, young and old, of the human race. We still want to be treated respectfully and with care and kind regard.
We want to be treated like those without a disability. We want to reach our highest potential and reach for the stars.
So, let me ask you...you do everything you can to move your life forward? And if you can't is there someone caring for you who can? Are you not only valuing yourselves more, but the one's around you taking steps to give you the worth, regard and importance you to deserve? Do you feel your own worth and confidence?
For the most part, in our hearts of hearts, it matters to us deeply; that others care. It matters how much people around us and in the disabled community understand and value us. It matters that we be treated with value. What ever our disability is, we would like people in our lives, our community, our world, our schools, and in our organizations to treat us like those without a disability.
Instead of competitiveness, let us teach others around us, to turn away from needing or having it all! Teach others how you need help, And show them the light and power of helping those who need help the most. It is not in the material or worldly good that we fine peace and harmony and worth within our every day experience- Instead, it is in the act of giving of our self selflessly and lending advise and a hand to those who need it the most.
In the Oxford English Dictionary, the definition for the word valued is...the regard that something is held to deserve; importance or worth. Are we and our lives held with value or worth? Do others accept us for who and what we are? Disability, silent or not? Do we accept others and ourselves with the sensitivities we have as being people (with Cerebral Palsy or a learning disability)? Even though, we have C.P., a learning disability, have scoliosis, a developmental delay, arthritis, or whatever our disability may be- WE are still men and women, young and old, of the human race. We still want to be treated respectfully and with care and kind regard.
We want to be treated like those without a disability. We want to reach our highest potential and reach for the stars.
So, let me ask you...you do everything you can to move your life forward? And if you can't is there someone caring for you who can? Are you not only valuing yourselves more, but the one's around you taking steps to give you the worth, regard and importance you to deserve? Do you feel your own worth and confidence?
For the most part, in our hearts of hearts, it matters to us deeply; that others care. It matters how much people around us and in the disabled community understand and value us. It matters that we be treated with value. What ever our disability is, we would like people in our lives, our community, our world, our schools, and in our organizations to treat us like those without a disability.
Instead of competitiveness, let us teach others around us, to turn away from needing or having it all! Teach others how you need help, And show them the light and power of helping those who need help the most. It is not in the material or worldly good that we fine peace and harmony and worth within our every day experience- Instead, it is in the act of giving of our self selflessly and lending advise and a hand to those who need it the most.
This Valentines, see what kind word or dead or act you personally can bring to the hearts of those with special needs. See how you feel. See the difference it brings to your spirit. It takes thought and mindfulness, care and consideration. It takes intention to do something positive. It takes a willingness to make a difference in just one person's life. And it take doing ONLY one good dead to bring someone hope and joy!
How can each and every one of us make a contribution to society. How can we bring hope and faith to those who what it, need it, and deserve it the most? How can we make ours and other peoples voices heard? How can we help to move our and those other people’s lives around us forward? How can we bring peace back into our and others lives? It is our basic right- these are the fundamentals of wiping out true discrimination. Help me to make a stand and to make a difference one person at a time! I ask you...
We need to communicate our needs, our wants, and our desires and those achievement that would truly make us happy and fulfilled, while gaining the public's respect and our world to value us as human being such as we are. We must know within our own conscience that we are doing good, that we are making a differences.
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