Cerebral Palsy Party Day 9: Preschool graduate

                   Today's pictures  come at a happy time for me.   It is  the first graduation that I remember 

  yeah  I  remember  graduating preschool.  It was a special time. My parents already made the choice that I would attend a private elementary school  which was not set up for kids with special needs which ment that none of my fellow classmates  would  have me in the same class.     I was on to bigger  things.     I had no idea  that  I was changing tracks  It was still school for me.

  Getting my diploma
 from  teacher  J.  She would continue to tutor me  at my home

 I was soo cute 

Cerebral Palsy Party Day 8 : Brining out the Marshmellows

  So todays post is going to be long but it is  going to be helpful.

 The biggest  way that  my Cerebral Palsy affects me is speech.   I understand the world  around me but   when  I try to speak the words do not come out clear. My  arch nemesis is the evil  K.

 For a longtime  I could not say the /k/ sound among other sounds.   I have a /k/ sound in my name which  would lead me to mispronounce my name. So "cookie" sounded a lot like  "tootie".

  A  great way  for others to understand  whats its like  for me to talk is to take marshmallows and  without swallowing them  try to talk.  For  preschool and kindergaten kids.    Have them  sing a song that they know like   Old McDonald had a farm while having marshmallows in there mouth.



  If they are  older you can take it a step forward.


 Steps
1 Line up outside the door.
2  one by one enter the  classroom and  given a card with a single word.
3  Sit  down  quietly  Don't  Talk
4 once  everyone has a word  hand out marshmallows  try to  have students rearrange  themselves in ABC  order with these rules.

       They  can not use hand gestures.
       they  can only say there word that is on their flashcard aka no sentences.
         They can swallow there marshmallows
  Explain that this is what  some people with CP experience everyday. The  pain the frustration the inability to communicate 

  I  did  the ABC order  activity in a linguistics  class.   The students learned a ton.  One told me that  if she  ever has students, she wants to be an elementary school  teacher,  with a  speech impairment they are going to bring out the marshmallows.

 got  images  from

 letter K
https://fbcdn-profile-a.akamaihd.net/hprofile-ak-ash3/50271_239794985914_7024254_n.jpg
 marshmallows
http://www.farmersalmanac.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Marshmallows-thumb-420x240.jpg

Cerebral Palsy Party Day 7: Childhood Home

   

       So  now that I  aged out my  EI  program it was time to  move. We  moved into the house we now live in, so  all of my memories are in this house. Moving also ment that I had to move preschools, but  I would have had to move schools anyway because  EI is  birth to three  and  preschool  is  from  3 to 5.   I went to a  pre school program for  children with speech  delays.   I have found memories of  pre school.  My  teacher was  great  she was able to get me to talk in full  sentences.  

          I love my house it nice and has a big backyard, more on this later,  The one thing I did not like about  our house is that  there is not  a lot  nearby.   It makes it  really hard  especially
  since I do not drive.
 

 Tip for people who  have kids and are looking for  a home


MAKE SURE THAT THERE ARE THINGS TO WALK TO, ITS SO IMPORTANT  THAT KIDS ARE GIVEN  FREEDOM AS THEY GET OLDER.

  

Cerebral Palsy Party Day 6 : Learning to talk

      Hay  guys  today  photos will be from  one  of my last days  in  EI.  Early  Intervention,   These  guys were great because they  taught  me everything I needed to know  before  preschool.   A funny thing is that despite my CP,  I graduated from  PT  as a toddler    I would  go  on to play neighborhood sports,  more on that later.   Early Intervention   taught me and my family sign language  so  I could communicate as my speech was  hard to understand.   Back  then   there was no  Signing  Time  so   I had  to  learn  by a teacher.  She  even    came to my house to tutor  me .  How cool was that

   My  family minus my  big  brother 

 I loved  Sesame Street 

 I am  so thankful that my  parents  worked so  hard   to get me to communicate    It  was key to  unlocking my potential.  I have  come a long way from using  sign language to express  myself.   Now   my  parents  and siblings  wonder  if  I will ever   be  quite.   I am  always  getting myself  in trouble at school  for  talking to much.    This is probly because   of  my  NLD, more on that later.

Cerbral Palsy Party Day 5:Becoming a big sister

   So to end out the week  I am going to be posting some pics from  when book girl was a baby.  I   was two almost three.  My  parents  wanted  to have more kids so that I would have teachers.  They were right about the whole   teacher part  but what they did not realize  was that I would end up teaching them as well.   I  asked book girl what she has learned from me and she said that I have taught her patience and not to judge a book by its cover.  She  has taught  me   about asserting myself  along with how to juice

   Don't  cry  book  gal  its me AZ 

     AZ  watches over a sleeping book girl

Aww

  Have a  great weekend guys.  I am  going to a conference Friday and Saturday that I will blog about.    Be sure to come back  monday  for  more pictures.

Cerebral Palsy Party Day 4: Team AZ

         

Today   is actually my  half  birthday.  So today's photo will be of my first b day.   I  had a great party,  I do not  remember  my first memory   comes about  preschool.   My  dad took some video  at the party and I have seen it.  I was  surrounded by family  and   friends.

 First  birthday loot

I  do  tend  to make connections with others.  It takes a  village  and  I  am  the  mayor.  I  actively recruit others  to be  a part of  Team  AZ.  Over the years   it has  include  family  friends teachers    my childhood OT& PT and  my  good  ST's .     My current team  incudes my  family,   A  bunch  of  people  at  my  jc, coaches  from Special  Olympics, and my  Facebook friends  and blog  readers .   I hope  everyone   has  enjoyed  being on team AZ  because  I have  enjoyed  having  all of you in my conner.

Cerebral Palsy Party 2014 Day 3: Finally home

   I went home  finally  and was able to  start living  life  in a family.   I did not  meet all my  milestones  on time but I  was  still  a  very  cute baby.   I  went to  early  intervention  to help  me  reach my milestones.    Things like walking talking siting  standing  took  me a lot longer.  

 I  think  I  was  three months old   here 

  I  am  rockin that  sweater.  My  mom    dressed me in super cute clothes
  

      This photo  was taken shortly before I  turned  one.  We were in Texas visiting family.  I also  went to Maui  in my first year. I was  quite the traveler

Because it  took me a lot of  blood sweat and tears, I  take offense to  people saying that babies learn through  osmosis.  That  is not how  I  learned, nor the  800,000 of  others living with  Cerebral  Palsy.   If you  were to say that all babies  are  cute  but AZ  was  super  cute  I would  have   to agree.  

PS:  today is   Spread the Word to  End the Word  so if you  have not pledge to  end  the use of the R word please   go  here  and  pledge.  I do not have an  intellectual disability  but I have  seen  first hand  how  powerful  words   can  be. So  please  pledge to  respect   everyone.