Q – Questions from Children

Although in my last post I was keen to show that Be Aware Be Clear is not exclusively for school children. I want to use this post to look at some of the questions which I have been asked following my talks to children.  Children seem to ask the best questions after all!  

As you can probably imagine, I have been asked lots of questions I will therefore use this, and my next post, to explore some of them. In this post I will cover the questions which I have been asked specifically relating to Cerebral Palsy (CP) and those questions which children have asked simply because they are curious. I have obviously supplied the answers as well – sometimes going into more detail than I did when it was asked by a child.

Questions relating specifically to CP:

Is there anyone else, in your family who is disabled? No. I explain that unlike some conditions, which are genetic, this is not the case with CP. Me turning around in my mother’s stomach was just an ‘unfortunate’ occurrence.

Does it hurt to talk? Mostly no. When I had all the trouble with my jaw then sometimes talking was painful but fortunately, this is no longer the case. Very recently though I have found that the more talking I do the more unclear, and harder, it seems to become. I think this is caused due to my jaw being mis aligned.

Will your CP get worse? Technically, no. CP is a non-progressive condition however, when I went to the CP clinic, for general advice, they mentioned the post impairment syndrome. Essentially this can be fatigue, due to people with CP needing to put more energy into their day-to-day life. The body can also experience premature ageing due to the daily strain which people, with CP, exert onto their muscles and bones

If your brain was starved of oxygen, how did you survive? In all my talks I try to share a bit about my Christian faith. I do this by explaining, in my introduction, that there was a pivotal moment in my childhood when I began to believe that God made me disabled so that I can raise disability awareness. Coming to this belief therefore helped me to find purpose in life.

This question asking specifically how I survived, if my brain was starved of oxygen, gives me the opportunity to go further. Firstly, I acknowledge that yes surviving birth was not a given but I believe it was God who made sure that I survived!

Can able bodied people get CP later in life? (or are you just born with CP) Cerebral Palsy is only caused before birth, during birth or within the first 5 years of life.

Before birth it can be caused by environmental factors such as what the mother eats or drinks during pregnancy. During birth it can be caused by the baby being starved of oxygen, which is what happened to me. It can also be caused within the first five years of life – if the toddler contracts a serious illness, such as meningitis.

 Questions out of curiosity:

Are any of your friends disabled? Yes, I do have friends who also have CP and I find my relationship with these friends to be quite special as we can share tips. For example, my friend who has a similar type of CP to me, shared how when she sends text messages, she uses the ‘drawing’ text method. After she told me about this, I gave it a go and lo and behold it really does help.

What is the one thing you can’t do, which you would like to do? To this question I answered ‘to be able to ride a (two-wheeler) bike.’ I always imagine being able to go off on a bike ride in the country must be so relaxing. I really enjoy the times when I go to parks where you can hire three-wheeler bikes as instead of putting all my concentration into what my feet are doing, I can look up and enjoy the view. I am not sure that I would give the same answer today as having my walker helps me to enjoy walking more but, riding a bike was definitely the thing which came to mind first!

Are people horrible to you? People were definitely horrible to me when I was at school and I used to be bullied most days. For example, when I was at secondary school my friend noticed that someone had stuck a label on my back, saying ‘I am a cabbage.’

Even today, although it is much less common, I still get people being horrible. One of the worse cases which I remember was when I was in the hospital canteen (where I work.) I fully realise that I am not the quickest thing on two legs when it comes to paying, but on this particular occasion the man behind me was getting inpatient and told me to hurry up. For some reason I showed him my work badge, thinking about it, I am not sure why I thought him knowing that I was a member of staff would help but… At which time he replied, ‘People like you shouldn’t be working in a place like this.’

If you were Prime Minister, what would you do? Make sure there is at least one Changing Place in every town or city. For those of you who are not aware, a Changing Place is needed for disabled adults who require help with personal hygiene they are out. The Changing Place is a much larger facility than the standard accessible toilet and it will often have a bench where the person can lie down if they need their carer to change their incontinence pad. The importance of these facilities were highlighted to me when I heard of a disabled person not having the freedom to leave their home long enough for fear that they would need the toilet. I have also heard horror stories of people being forced to lie on dirty toilet floors.

Do you play basketball? On the face of it this seems to be a very strange question but I think it was asked by someone who had seen the footage which the BBC used to use between programmes. Three or four Paralympians were shown playing basketball, while the announcer told viewers about the next programme. The fact that I was asked this, shows the role media can play in positively portraying disabled people.

For those of you still wanting the precise answer – no, I do not play basketball!