through my eyes my life with cerebral palsythrough my eyes my life with cerebral palsy

Adaptive Musical Instruments

lifeofthedifferentlyabled — Mon, 21 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

A komuz - one of the principal musical instruments of Kyrgyzstan. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Some years ago I was watching “moving on” a CBC program that was all things disability

One episode that comes to mind. it was an episode that showed a child playing music using a motion sensor and a tv screen that had coloured dots each dot either represented a note or an instrument and with some movement allows one to create music. Although I can no longer find information on that system it inspired this post.

Finding the joy of music despite physical limitations

In looking for information about the system mentioned above I came across a similar program in the form of an inspiration article that I thought was worth sharing

In case you missed it today’s poll is below

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Technorati Tags: art, Disability, Kyrgyzstan, limited movement, Music, Music and Film, Musical instrument, range of motion

cerebral palsy made my college classmates uncomfortable

lifeofthedifferentlyabled — Fri, 18 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Cerebral palsy makes me different. Different is a relative term here as many of my experiences were the same as my peers – I attended mainstream school and went to mainstream classes. But I was always keenly aware of the differences. When I was younger simple things like using the washroom meant that I had to wait for my educational assistant to become available and she only worked afternoons. Other academic differences for me was I was allowed in the later years the use of a calculator, early on they wouldn’t, the idea being I should be able to learn the multiplication tables: for the record I have some of them memorized but not all it just apparently doesn’t make sense to how my brain sees patterns. This being said, I am a human phone book. If I dial a number once it is committed to memory. Even numbers that for people that no longer have that number are still in my head along with their new one! I got to figure out where that delete button is!

Also the disability makes me invisible. I am not sure if people think that my cognition is impacted by the cerebral palsy but they take it upon themselves to often talk over my head to the person I am with. I will explain some examples of real life situations: when in college I went and did an additional certification in Microsoft office products at the training the receptionist talked over my head to my mom who was there acting as my ride home. I don’t know if I had a sign on my forehead that said yes I have a disability so feel free to treat me in a different way than you would others because clearly given my cerebral palsy I don’t a word you are saying to me.” Yet in order to do the tests I was there to do I had to attend mainstream school, college to be exact. Where did that woman learn it was an okay thing to treat me as different because of my disability? I went on to complete the tests and in September returned to complete my college education where the professor asked if anyone had gone and completed the optional testing I was the only one in my class that raised my hand the girl behind me turned to the girl beside her and said: “if Laura can do it, it must be easy!” Why do people see the fact that my disability makes me different and then because they clear don’t understand cerebral palsy choose to insult my intelligence? I must somehow magically have been smart enough to attend mainstream school despite my cerebral palsy. Do they somehow think cerebral palsy makes life easier? Life isn’t any easier or harder because of cerebral palsy the disability is all I know. I love that I had the opportunity to attend mainstream school

Technorati Tags: Cerebral Palsy, cerebral palsy child, childhood disability, Disability, school, understanding

New feature Polls

lifeofthedifferentlyabled — Fri, 18 May 2012 00:25:32 +0000

I am going to have a daily poll there is one up there now this one will stay until tuesday given the nature of the question and that it is a new feature that I am rolling out and I hope you will enjoy if you have questions you think I should include as a poll question let me know!

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Back on Track I hope

lifeofthedifferentlyabled — Thu, 17 May 2012 04:00:56 +0000

Crazy Hair photo shoot (Photo credit: J Jackson Photography)

I have had the best of intentions this week of maintaining my normal blogging schedule but things had gotten a little crazy.

I am here now hopefully returning to my normal schedule pending nothing else comes up. I know that you all don’t expect me to be a work horse to this blog but I expect it of myself. This isn’t the first blog I’ve started I dabbled in it years ago without success at all. The success came from doing this routinely and it is something that I thoroughly enjoy! Thanks to my loyal readers and new friends who found something of interest here.

You may be wondering why I chose that picture I feel it sums up how I was feeling these days trying to manage everything I have had going on!

Technorati Tags: crazy hair, feeling, overwhelmed

The Little blogger that could

lifeofthedifferentlyabled — Tue, 15 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

I am sorry I didn’t update yesterday it was a busy weekend so I figured you guys wouldn’t mind if I missed a day.
Today I am reminded of the children’s story: “The Little Engine that Could” I am struggling to generate content that I believe dangerous. (According to my Dragon NaturallySpeaking blog content is dangerous!) I intended to write interesting but thought that this error was hilarious so I left it in for your entertainment! This is one of the joys of using voice recognition software! Sometimes a sneeze writes out a whole string of text that I would never think to put together but it adds to the entertainment value of the writing project I am doing at the time. Today, I wanted to take the time and ask what you needed and/or wanted to see more of or added to this blog. I am a one-woman operation, and the thing I find hardest about all of this is content generation and this is why I am asking you your help is greatly appreciated!

Technorati Tags: blog, dragon naturallyspeaking, facebook, idea generation, Speech recognition, Speech Technology

family life doesn’t stop because of life with cerebral palsy

lifeofthedifferentlyabled — Fri, 11 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Mother's Day card (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I decided to write this as a way to say happy Mother’s Day weekend all. Spend some time this weekend enjoying family life. Just because it’s Mother’s day weekend shouldn’t change how you interact in terms of family life but simply acts as a nice reminder. Happy Mother’s day everyone

Now on to the bulk of my post. By sharing some of the things I have faced in my life with cerebral palsy it is my hope to help the children youth and adults that are going through things that I have already overcome: be it finding creative ways of creating social inclusion or talking about things that I feel could make daily life a little easier, or by asking a question in hopes of finding a solution to a current challenge I face; I built this site as a gathering place and I feel like my efforts are finally paying off.

This wish to help has taken me offline too, with the trip to Ottawa that I made to speak to a high school, I still find myself in awe that anyone finds any of what I have to say here interesting but than again people accuse me of being too humble about it as well. I started this two and a half years ago and as I stated in last Friday’s post I didn’t tell my offline world right away – even without people from offline knowing about it at all for the first year I managed to grow my blog to reach 20,000 hits. It was then that I decided to buy the domain and it is now what you see before you. I celebrate my difference and frankly the commonalities of life with cerebral palsy. We are all different and the fact that I use a wheelchair and live life with cerebral palsy only gives me a different perspective. People seem to think that life with cerebral palsy is hard. For me I wouldn’t say it is overly hard, this is the only life I know, a life with cerebral palsy. I offer this blog to the world remembering that my blog only reflects the life of one person and the people who impact my life. I blog as a way to share with people my story. I chose to blog because I love to write, I wanted a way to find out what I found creative in my life.

It is my hope that the family that has someone in it living with cerebral palsy realizes that their family life doesn’t have to stop because of the limitations faced by the person with cerebral palsy. Activities you may have once done as a family may have to be changed or simply adapted or new ones found that all can enjoy regardless of ability, family life is about family.

Technorati Tags: Cerebral Palsy, family, Mother's Day, Ottawa

When I realized that my readers are people too

lifeofthedifferentlyabled — Thu, 10 May 2012 04:05:30 +0000

In the beginning of this journey, the blogging journey that is, I spent countless hours trying to establish if I was successful and then what made me successful. I still don’t know the answer the only thing I can I know is people are staying on my site for two minutes or more now. the one thing I did note when I started this journey was that I would be one in a very small niche. There are few bloggers who write about their lives with cerebral palsy, often it’s the parents or caregivers doing the blogging.

Stop caring about the numbers

When I stopped looking at the numbers and started focusing on better content, I feel I have started to create just that better content. Better content equals more readers equal improved motivation for me to strive to do better still. Do you think I should increase to seven days a week or do you like that I post five or is five itself too much. I blog because I want to help others and your feedback would help me do you like the new related posts with the images? How would you suggest I improve this blog? Your feedback is greatly appreciated

Technorati Tags: blogging

Three things I have learned living with spasticity

lifeofthedifferentlyabled — Wed, 09 May 2012 04:00:12 +0000

Muscles and other structures of wrist and palm (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Three things I have learned living with spasticity

1 it is easier to put my left arm into clothes first

2 the grip of my left hand feels strange to hold things

3 the spasticity in my hand meant that I learned to type at first only using the first three fingers on my left hand

disabled parenting

lifeofthedifferentlyabled — Tue, 08 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

I can’t help but share this article - it is being posted on my facebook like a wild fire and because it relates to my blog I feel it important to share!

Technorati Tags: Cerebral Palsy, Cognition, Disability, Mississauga, Parent

moro reflex and startle reflex finding understanding

lifeofthedifferentlyabled — Mon, 07 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Moro reflex (Photo credit: kungfujen Via Flickr)

This post comes out of a recent comment I received:”Have your issues with (startle reflex) remained pretty steady, or do you notice fluctuations?” I thought that my answer would probably be too in depth to simply call for a response. I would first like to explain something before I actually answer the question. It is my understanding that the technical term for the above mentioned startle reflex is actually moro reflex, I use both terms interchangeably on this blog.

Now: to answer your question. Certainly this moro reflex is not something I have never lost, nor will I ever lose. But, I guess it is something I have learned to cope with as it is a part of cerebral palsy . remember that in reading this that cerebral palsy and moro reflex is all that i have ever known. moro reflex is one of those things that never left me since birth, it is just a part of me. I am not sure I can clearly answer that part about if it fluctuates as one thing I have learned about my life with cerebral palsy is that every day is different. I think something everyone needs to remember: is that cerebral palsy impacts each person differently. Therefore, I would assume than that everyone’s body then have different triggers for startle reflex. So to answer your question: The moro reflex will always be a part of me but I have better days then others both with issues of spasticity and startle reflex. startle reflex has to be one of the most annoying parts of life with cerebral palsy.

Technorati Tags: baby startle reflex, Cerebral Palsy, Conditions and Diseases, Disability, Health, moro reflex, Neurological disorder, startle reflex, Startle response