Customer Reviews

Taking Cerebral Palsy to School

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am an elementary education teacher with Cerebral Palsy. I have successfully used this book with many of my classes to help explain my disability. It explains the disability in a way that is easy for the students to understand. The students love the activity that simulates what having Cerebral Palsy feels like. I highly recommend this book. It even has a question and answer section for the students in the back and tips for teachers.

You can do anything if you try hard enough. This book is great because it shows that even if you are challenged there is a way you can meet your goals. Just like kids at my school that are in wheel chairs still do p.e. and everything else.

It's a great book!

I think that this is a wonderful book to describe the experience of the child that it was written about. Individuals who have Cerebral Palsy are all effected so differently. Other than the level of severity, there are many children who are only affected in their hands and arms, legs, or only one side of their body. Some children are non-verbal or speak differently while others have typical speech. Some deal with cognitive delays and others are not effected intellectually at all. This would make it very difficult to write a book explaining the specifics of each individual's journey with CP. However, I did find that this book covers a large portion of the challenges that children with CP deal with. The author does a terrific job of explaining those areas in terms which are understandable to children. Some aspects of the disability are mentioned that are not relevant to the child that I had in mind (he doesn't have seizures or wear head gear). However, since each challenge is mentioned on a separate page of the book, you are able to skip over pages and it does not affect the story line at all. I like the authors example of how to get an idea of what living with CP (when fine motor is effected) feels like. I, also, think that the 'Question & Answer' and 'Tips For Teacher's' sections at the end of the book are valuable tools.

What a great idea for a book! It teaches kids to accept others and at the same time they learn the facts about Cerebral Palsy.

Very interesting to learn about other people's disabilities. Easy to read.

This book begins with an awful title and ends rather awfully too. Chad is not Cerebral Palsy! The last words in the book are: "...Cerebral Palsy is really just a very small part of who I am. In every other way, I'm just like you!" - yet all the words before it basically say the opposite. The author tries to use Chad to represent all aspects of Cerebral Palsy which isn't very realistic.

Speaking of unrealistic - the book suggests that readers can experience what living with CP is like by putting three pairs of socks on each hand. Followed by this suggestion is "That's kind of what I feel like, living with Cerebral Palsy. It isn't easy."

The fact is Cerebral Palsy affects each person differently.

My biggest question (and I really mean BIG) - Why is Chad shown so much bigger than other people in the illustrations? He's apparently bigger than either his mother or father and bigger than three siblings or classmates combined!

There are better books that I recommend (they don't necessarily deal just with CP) check them out on my Listmania List : Great Children's Books on Disability

By the way, my wife has Cerebral Palsy. She uses a motorized wheelchair and has a speech impairment. She is also the mother of two children and a college graduate. She recently started a blog BoulderMomOnWheelz at Blogspot.com