World CP Day 2013

  Hay  guys  so today  is  World CP Day  and this year its  special because I am a champion for  CP day.     Today is the day to  wear  green and  talk about the abilities of people who live with CP.  The  video  this  year is  a very  unique one because it shows the great  abilities that  people with Cerebral Palsy  have.  I want to thank everyone for sharing their photos with me.    It was so fun to be able to see all  of the people with CP and learn about their abilities. Thankyou.

  I also want to thank  Kate  for letting me   honor  her son Gavin.   For those of you who do not  know the story.  Gavin    passed  away this past  April at five and a half years old .  His  family   called him  their super hero.   For more information please visit Kate's  blog  to learn more about Gavin and his amazing family.


   Hope  you enjoy the video



 Rest in  peace  Gavin

 Have a great day everyone and remember to wear  green.


 Ps.   Sorry if there are spelling mistakes.

University Update

            For those  who read the blog and  or  know   me  offline,   You  know that  last semester  I graduated   Jr. College and  started University  near by  my  house.  Well  what  you  probably are wondering is  How is the transition  going.

               I have  changed my clases  a ton  so now  I am  going  part time with nine units and  the department   dean has already met with me and my  parents and advisor,  who originally said that  I  could stop on by  whenever I want   however  I   was  going too much,   So as of  now  I have  nine units 



   Math for Elementary School  Teachers

   Linguistics

  American  history

  Lets  take a look at how  I am doing  in all three in those classes 


 Math 

  Never too old for  a first day of  school pic  8-28-13

          I  hate to admit it but this class is hard.    We are doing fractions and  the homework has  been difficult   We went over the  chapter review, we have a test on Friday, which I  understood  so   maybe  the test will be doable. 

   Linguistics


                I  got an  A  on the first test despite not having  extended time because the professor did not put  the test  in the   DSPS place.    I wish  that was  my only complete about this   professor but  I have not  liked them  since the day they  said  that "  All  children learn language without ever being taught." When I   confronted her about it she  said  Well  all NORMAL  children do. I  went to  her office  hour and  tried to expalin   the mistake to her but  she  said it was interesting   how a word changes.  (  ok  so  she was  taking about the R  word)  and she  used  crippled   in her handout then  defended it.    If that isn't  Ableist then  I do not know  what is.   When  we were learning about  developmental stages she  said    " AZ knows that your  tongue  has to do  gymnastics   to make  the sounds."   = Sure bring up that up I am all ready finding some part of the topic that applies to me.

                  We are  doing  phonics  now which is  going alright except that some  students are laughing  at things  and sounds  which  I do not find funny because  well  I do know It might have something to do with the fact that I  been in speech  for a long time  and still  t alk like Sh**.   Oh  the  professor thinks  sounds are interesting and  K i s such a  cool  sound.  The professor also  said  jokingly to another student,  Well J  its ok if you cant   make a clicking  sound  but     I  think you can make the  L  sound.       J finds it  funny I  find  it  offensive  but again  I  can not do anything about it.   I  sit in the back of  the class its  a good   place to  doodle  and   zone  out.



 History


 Well I  have this right  after  Linguistics and it    gives me something to look forward to  those days.  The  guy is  British  and extremely funny.    I am  interested in hearing his  take on the American  Revolution.  I  enjoy his lectures.


 We had  a test Tuesday  and I think i did alright considering that    i had to take the test where people  get tutoring.  I am used to  total quiet when doing  test  in  fact that is why I take the test  outside of class.    I  do not think  the campus is disability friendly.  There is  one  bright  spot  I have  a friend that wants to be a special education teacher and  has   worked in the field so he   'gets'  it.  Now to  educate more people .  
:(

Endless Treadmill to Adulthood

                 Over the weekend, apart from turning 22 , I saw this and was very happy by the end of the clip.   it starts at 51 seconds.

   Ok so there   is a couple of guys drinking beer... hay isn't one of them  disabled...... is that  allowed.......




   My answer  is  why not as long and he's legal age  why can't a  man  go to the bar and  drink amongst his friends.



  Well not all people  think  like that.  On  Wednesday night I had a meeting for Big Wave.  Big wave is a  idea for a local housing  community for people with developmental disabilities.  We are in the process of making a list  of entry requirement and one of them was  the question of Alcohol  One  parent spoke up and said that Who are we to   take their  rights away.  They are adults.

 I  spoke up and said the same thing; however  some other parents  jumped in saying it was not a good idea for their  disabled  kids to drink.


      Before I  go on  I want  to say  I see your point. You want your adult children  to be safe and sometimes meds and alcohol do not mix.  I see that  and   I do not drink a lot for this reason  however,   everyone should have  choice. Freedom of coice  is one of the perks of  turning   18.    Average  young people  have that choice  when they go away to college.  Why should  those with disabilities be any different.   Parents should  talk to their  kids about the dangers of drugs  especially if they are on meds , but to band  certain  things  is not fair because  the people living here are adults.  If you are trying to give your   sons and daughters independence  then  you  have to give  them a choice of what to  put into their body.  Its  that  simple.


 There is  no Neverland . Their are  no Peter Pans  who  stay  a child forever.   Arm your kids with information and  hope for the best because  that is all you can do,

 Now back on the endless treadmill to adulthood

Once upon a time

Hay guys this is a good post , but spelling may b bad as I typed on my iPhone, internet is down at my place school starts tomorrow . I still need photo for the CP montage.

Once upon a time in the fall of1997 a little black and hispanch girl started kindergarten.Not only was this girl a  minority  she also had CerebralPalsy    She hated phonics because she did not havethe ability    to make the sounds, yet she loved words and was reading by the end of the year.

By first grade this girl had really bad behavior she was diagnosed with  nld . But that spring she participated in field day and got awards 

  

In second grade she attended a new school  they were able to help her and she got an   Award   for a nature project.  

 

Throughout her elementary school career she won 

 

 Life skills  awards 

 Bike rider award in third grade for particpating in sunday bike rides  with her teacher, dad, and siblings. 

a science fair ribbon in 5th  grade 

Along with trophiesand awards    for neighborhood kids sports one year she won a good  award from her local ayso 

In middle school the student still had behavior problems but still managed to get on honor  role.

 She joined special olympics and began to win lots of medals over the l next  eight years .

In high school she got awards as well but also developed OCD  she did not want to leave high school and acted out so bad that many people did not  not want her to visit she accepts full responsibility for this by the way.

 She missed a lot of class her first semester of college but when she   Started going to school she improved her behavior and  picked up a medal that said that she graduated with honors. Out of all the awards she has received this one means the most to her.

Finding a balance: Friendships among abilities

             Friendship  is a   long word- a  wooping ten letters. For some  friendships come easy.  Two  kids   meet t
hey  like  Angry  Birds and   Mario and  Legos and  bam they  become  friends its that easy. For others  it is  really hard they  might  be shy  interverted or a little  nerdy,




  Enter a child with a pretty sigficant disabilities




           I should propise by saying that  I do have special needs and sigficant social issues and  do not have a lot  of friends, nor have I  ever had solid firendships.  I have tried   befriending those with special needs and adverage  people with some success, not much but some aquences and some  firendships past.  In  lainmans terms, I may not be the best person to  give advice here  but this is  just  my  own   oppion,  which.


     I think kids with special needs need to have a mixture of firneds.     They should have  peers  that also have disabilities  if possable  with the same dignoses.  I have seen the  special  connection that others have made   with those with disabilties. For example,   I have witnessed   two  young people with  the same disabilities as  "brothers"  even though they are not related, good luck convinceing them  though.  I have witnessed a group of young kids rally  together to support another  kid  when they  had a  meltdown and  all three kids  shared the same  disability. As for me  I do  feel a special connection to others with CP. Which is why  I  love doing the World  CP montage,  and online  I  read stuff by fellow  CPers and  I  think,  "Man  I could have   written that."   But  I do not have a close  friend   with CP   but I  think  I  would enjoy that.  In the meantime I have friends with  disablties   over the past 21 years of my life.

      I also believe  that kids with special needs need to have  average  (ie  people without disabilities ).   I  am not going to lie  I had a lot of help  from my mom and book gal  on this subject

  I  think  my mom put it best in that    interacting with different types of people allows you to  break down stereotypes of that person and  allows  people to see  that when the day is done   we are all just people.  Book gal  agrees ,her best friend is different  from her but  what makes them  best friends  is knowing that they  have each others back.  

   Another reason that  interacting among abilities is  that  those with special needs will need to interact with the general population  for the rest of their lives.  99 percent of the time   I need to  interact with the people   at the store in  restaurants and  college.    Most of these people  do not have disabilties therefore  those with disabilities need to learn how to   behave  with average people.  The social skills  I do  have I had to learn  in the world. I could not have learned them in  amongst my peers with disabilities because  some of them   are trying to learn  them  themselves.  In  first grade I had  to learn about personal space  because  when  I  got too close to my classmates  they did not like  it.

 It a nut shell  those with  special needs  need a balance of  friendships.   It is nice to be amongst people that understand what you are going through, yet   by isolating one self   people with special needs  do not get a chance to  bridge the gap  and gain the social skills needed for  success.  What are your thoughts.


  If you  know  someone with Cerebral Palsy  click here to learn more about a photo montage  that
AZ is hosting for World CP Day.








Got image from http://theadaptables.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Children-with-disabilities.jpg

   

Invasion of the Super heroes: A call for pictures for World CP Day to honor Gavin

                       So  remember how I said last year that  the World CP  day   montage will be something  I will do   next year Well

 Its  back and  this year its bigger then ever.  Now self advocates, parents  will be able to join in the fun for World  CP  day which  is  on October 2  this year.  Its  going to be twice as fun because now  people  can submit two photos  and they will both be in the montage. but  before I tell you  the details  its  time for a story,


       Meet  Gavin 

 He was a five and half  little boy who  had CP and a unknown  genetic condition. I  say was because  last April, on his  mother's birthday, Gavin  left the earth.   His family misses him very much.

Gavin's family with their supper G  t shirts on the fire truck that was named after him,
 Proof that Gavin is  a supper hero

 Gavin loved the water and charmed everyone he met.  He was  a supper hero  to his mom  dad and little brother  Brain.

 Gavin was supper happy in water 

 So  a few weeks ago I was thinking about  having a world CP  video that would  honor Gavin   I talked to his mom  Kate  via  Facebook and  she  thought that  having a supper hero photo would be good.   So that is exactly  how  you can  enter  two photos,
  One   can be of anything  like  last year while  another  is a   photo  that has words on it  that say 


 Supper   (       )

 or  

 ( Name) is a  supper  blank.   

  EX :                                    Do not put a copy wright symbol  on your photograph

  You  do not need  a copyright symbol  

      If you have  fb   Pic monkey  is  an easy app for this.   Let me know if you need help with this and I will try to  walk  you through it; however  I  will not have time to  put words on the pictures so you need  to do it 

 Once you have  done this  email me  at azchapman1991@gmail.com  and  check back  October second for the  video montage featueing   Supper amazing  people  with Cerebral Palsy 




     Updated  August first 

   I have only  gotten two pics  so   I am  going to make it easy on you  guys  Here are your instructions

1 Send me  two different pics 


2Tell me what the text should say   and what picture it goes with 
3Make  sure the text is spelled correctly

23 years ago

23 years ago America was getting ready for me. The ADA was passed which gave me and my fellow disabled people civil rights there is still a ton of work to do to ensure that those with disables have a full life but ADA was definitely a step in the right direction happy ADA day,



















 Sorry  guys  I have been  MIA , Its been a rough summer for me,  Hope to be back  blogging   soon.