I meant to write this on Friday but I've been keeping busy at work so I haven't had much time to put a post together. I've also been nervous about writing this specific post so I've been putting it off but I feel it's something that really has to be said. I spent the majority of my childhood in Speech Therapy and was given the option to stop my Freshman year of High School even if I was no where near finishing the program, and I definitely wouldn't have before graduation. I was given that option because I was pulled out of class for Speech Therapy and it that itself was a bigger problem than it was in Junior High and especially Elementary School. I sort of regret of not taking Speech Therapy for the rest of High School but now that I've been backsliding again it might not have mattered later on. My speech impediment hasn't stopped me from finding jobs. I went through a few jobs before settling with Kroger and got promoted during the time I've been having Hydrocephalus related medical problems and while my speech has been backsliding.
Even though I'm not willing to go into much detail about it writing on a public site, what I regret now is the lack of Occupational Therapy when a lot of the focus was on Speech Therapy. I had it in Preschool and then during a two year period when I was in the 5th grade and into Junior High in the form of Adaptive P.E but I wish I would have been offered more. I'm not sure how much the school district offered though, and my parents wouldn't have been able to afford if it wasn't something they would have had to pay for. I'm able to do that majority of my job without a problem but I run into problems when I have to do something that has to do with fine motor skills. I've been offered Occupational Therapy recently but working 5 or 6 days a week and almost full time it's something I don't have time for. I need to keep my availability open as much as possible too so it would be tough to schedule it on a regular basis.
The point of this post is a warning to Parents of children with Hydrocephalus or younger people with it to consider Occupational Therapy if it's not already being provided because problems fine motor skills and other similar problems will just be worse in the work force. I know that there's a lot of people with Hydrocephalus and with some it's obvious it wouldn't be possible early on. But with many people with Hydrocephalus it is possible to lead a pretty normal life. Thanks for reading, and I helped and encouraged others. If you want to know about my specific struggles with fine motor skills at work feel free to send me a E-mail or contact me on the social networking sites where I post links to my blog.
http://kidshealth.org/parent/system/ill/occupational_therapy.html
http://kidshealth.org/parent/system/ill/speech_therapy.html
http://www.hydroassoc.org/docs/A_Teachers_Guide_to_Hydrocephalus.pdf
Showing posts with label Speech therapy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Speech therapy. Show all posts
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Attention needed from schools for children with Hydrocephalus (a view point of someone living with it)
Sorry I'm a few days late, I ended up working a really weird schedule this week and didn't have much time except for working and sleeping. I also had a hard time picking out a topic. I had some ideas but nothing that I could write a significant amount about it, and some that I feel would be going off too much off subject. I've decided to go back to a subject that I've talked about before. One of my main goals for this blog is to help people, and while I don't know about this from a parent's point of view I can write about this on a point of view of someone with the condition itself and from what my parent's have told me. I'm going to talking about what was does to keep me safe in Elementary school, and I realize that it's different for everyone. Some had more limitations because their childhood experiences with Hydrocephalus is a lot different, or because their parents or teachers were more cautious usually because it was a different time period.
With me most of what was done when I was participating in mainstream classes, I was unaware of until years later. I did have speech therapy until high school,and a few years of adaptive P.E, both in small groups or one on one along with a Individualized Education Program meeting each year. Each thing up until Special Ed classes starting in Middle school were things that I was pulled out of class for. So I still participated in regular P.E and it wasn't too obvious that I was getting help with either thing, although it's always been pretty obvious that I have a speech impediment, especially in Elementary school.
One thing that should be done with anyone with a shunt is that is either young or not be able to recognize their shunt malfunction symptoms is to have someone who knows what they are to look after the person. This includes parents,teachers or any other care taker. I didn't know that they were, and for years every time is was brought up I didn't know what they meant by it. Some did a better job than others and in some cases a lot better of a job, but with most it feels good now that they made a point to do that for me. Thankfully nothing major ever came up and except for the shunt placement as a toddler I had a surgery free childhood.
Another thing was that I couldn't play contact sports because if I got hurt it might have damaged my shunt. It might not sound fair to some people, but it was the one thing that my neurosurgeon told my parents I shouldn't do. I wasn't interested in playing sports anyway because of other physical limitations caused by Hydrocephalus. I learned a few years ago that many kids were left out completely out of P.E and had to sit out everyday. Most of these people were born a decade or two before me, and they were the first generation of kids to be born with Hydrocephalus to have survivors who could function, due to the invention of the modern day shunt. But there are some that are closer to my age who still had to sit out. My P.E teacher never had me sit out, instead she made rules that everyone had to follow that allowed me to play football, dodge-ball etc etc. The few times the activity was something that I wasn't supposed to do she made it a option for others to sit out too so I wouldn't be alone. If it something I needed help with due to physical limitations or not having depth perception when it came to gymnastics, I was it was offered help or given it without option.
The one thing that was done that I was hadn't been done, was when she (or the school) had been participate in the track and field day at one of the high schools in the district. They didn't explain to me what was going on at all, and neither did my parents or they wouldn't have let it happen. They had me participate in a run with the more severely disabled kids. I don't mean to offend anyone, but there's a lot more I'm capable of than some others with disabilities. At least in high school the reason I stayed in Special Education classes was because of problems not getting into habits, and organizational problems. If it wasn't for done I would have been taken out of those classes my Junior year. It really hurt being compared to people with more severe disabilities in that way now. It hurts a lot more when I get treated that way now, but that was a major part in realizing what people think of me.
I'll love to talk more about this subject either on social media or by e-mail. It's the same with other topics, but this is one of the subjects I would like to talk about again in the near future using other people's experiences. Thanks for reading.
Pediatric Hydrocephalus Foundation
http://www.hydrocephaluskids.org/wordpress/
With me most of what was done when I was participating in mainstream classes, I was unaware of until years later. I did have speech therapy until high school,and a few years of adaptive P.E, both in small groups or one on one along with a Individualized Education Program meeting each year. Each thing up until Special Ed classes starting in Middle school were things that I was pulled out of class for. So I still participated in regular P.E and it wasn't too obvious that I was getting help with either thing, although it's always been pretty obvious that I have a speech impediment, especially in Elementary school.
One thing that should be done with anyone with a shunt is that is either young or not be able to recognize their shunt malfunction symptoms is to have someone who knows what they are to look after the person. This includes parents,teachers or any other care taker. I didn't know that they were, and for years every time is was brought up I didn't know what they meant by it. Some did a better job than others and in some cases a lot better of a job, but with most it feels good now that they made a point to do that for me. Thankfully nothing major ever came up and except for the shunt placement as a toddler I had a surgery free childhood.
Another thing was that I couldn't play contact sports because if I got hurt it might have damaged my shunt. It might not sound fair to some people, but it was the one thing that my neurosurgeon told my parents I shouldn't do. I wasn't interested in playing sports anyway because of other physical limitations caused by Hydrocephalus. I learned a few years ago that many kids were left out completely out of P.E and had to sit out everyday. Most of these people were born a decade or two before me, and they were the first generation of kids to be born with Hydrocephalus to have survivors who could function, due to the invention of the modern day shunt. But there are some that are closer to my age who still had to sit out. My P.E teacher never had me sit out, instead she made rules that everyone had to follow that allowed me to play football, dodge-ball etc etc. The few times the activity was something that I wasn't supposed to do she made it a option for others to sit out too so I wouldn't be alone. If it something I needed help with due to physical limitations or not having depth perception when it came to gymnastics, I was it was offered help or given it without option.
The one thing that was done that I was hadn't been done, was when she (or the school) had been participate in the track and field day at one of the high schools in the district. They didn't explain to me what was going on at all, and neither did my parents or they wouldn't have let it happen. They had me participate in a run with the more severely disabled kids. I don't mean to offend anyone, but there's a lot more I'm capable of than some others with disabilities. At least in high school the reason I stayed in Special Education classes was because of problems not getting into habits, and organizational problems. If it wasn't for done I would have been taken out of those classes my Junior year. It really hurt being compared to people with more severe disabilities in that way now. It hurts a lot more when I get treated that way now, but that was a major part in realizing what people think of me.
I'll love to talk more about this subject either on social media or by e-mail. It's the same with other topics, but this is one of the subjects I would like to talk about again in the near future using other people's experiences. Thanks for reading.
Pediatric Hydrocephalus Foundation
http://www.hydrocephaluskids.org/wordpress/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)