By Sarah Coiner, PRC-Saltillo Blogger
I guess that I should start by saying that my name is Sarah Coiner, and I was born with Cerebral Palsy. My limitations are physical and not cognitive. I was my parents' first baby, and at first they thought I was just really lazy. I think I was ten months old when they took me to the doctor because they knew something was not right.
I don't really remember how old I was when I started working with physical therapists and speech-language pathologists, I know I was working with them when I was two. I don't remember much, but I know we did a lot of learning type of games. I know my Mom was very impressed with my speech therapist. We became friends with her and her husband, and would visit them after we moved away.
I know they would put me up and over and behind things so I could learn the different prepositions. They wanted me to not only understand the concepts cognitively, but also get a feel for what they actually meant. We would do the same things over and over again. And then they would test me, and if I had learned everything, we would move on.
They knew that reading was going to be a big part of my life, so we would work on reading type of things from early on. I was read to from very early on. They would work with me on my sounds. I remember that my first communication was cardboard pieces. Those first things had pictures and words both. But that was only the most basic. We would have things for eating, drinking and going to the bathroom. I was potty trained from very young.
Of course, we were also working on things like making me hold my own head up and sitting up the best that I could. These were things we would work on day in and day out for years to come.
I am grateful for all of the training that I got early on. I think it has helped shape my life.
Communicators In Action - speech, therapy, physical, slp, pt, cerebral palsy, CP