Acres of Ability

The occupational therapist was taking Kyra’s medical history.  Again.  It’s a story I’ve told hundreds of times, to hundreds of medical professionals over the past 21 years.  In fact, I’ve told this same story more than a dozen times to professionals from this same agency.  Still, they think they need to hear it again. As if it would change. If only it would change. Of course, it doesn’t change.  It only gets longer. But sometimes there's a new twist, like today, that changes even my perspective. Today, the occupational therapist that is helping us obtain splints to prevent further joint damage to Kyra’s wrists went through the same evaluation routine: Pregnancy-Birth-Baby-Now-Blah-Blah-Blah.  I squinched my eyes into memory mode, and rattled off more statistics than the most accomplished sports pros can possibly keep in their heads. Then, the OT surprised me.  (Which is very hard to do.)  “I’ve never seen anything like it,” she said as she gently took Ky

We had a great visit with Dr. Jan Brunstrom-Hernandez and the team at 1 CP Place during our visit to Plano, Texas.  Even after 21 years of cerebral palsy “experience”, we found out there’s still more we can do to help Kyra live her best life. We first saw Dr. Jan at the cerebral palsy clinic she started at Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, but we hadn’t seen her since she made the move to Texas.  With Kyra’s transition out of high school, and her recent bouts with pneumonia and other health issues, we thought it was time to seek out her help again.  1 CP Place, Dr. Jan’s clinic in Plano, Texas, is a unique medical clinic that specializes in treating children and young adults with cerebral palsy. At the beginning of her visit, Kyra used her Tobii eye gaze communication device to talk with Dr. Jan about the people we were visiting.  She also showed off her ball-throwing technique and gave high-fives to the 1 CP Place team.  This initial phase of the appointment was captured on v

Last Friday, Kyra and I had the opportunity to converse with a group of designers and researchers from California State University working on the concept that people with special conditions (i.e. “disabilities”) more often than not possess abilities that “normal” people don’t have. For example, it is well-documented that blind people often develop superior hearing and tactile sensitivity, and people on the autism spectrum are often able to hyper-focus and solve problems with enhanced speed, creativity, and accuracy. These researchers and designers postulate that when we understand, expect, and encourage these special abilities, people that have previously been denied meaningful education or work because of a glaring “disability” suddenly become economically valuable in the eyes of a school or business. It’s a win-win situation long overdue. Kyra and I had so much fun answering questions about Kyra’s talents, gifts, and interests, and learning about the projects and r