The CP Links Page is where you will find most Federal, State and local County pages.

WHAT IS CP
CEREBRAL PALSY
My attempt to clarify CP you may find the information provided by NINDS is more specific and detailed

TREATMENT of  CP
There are many different treatments and I only name those I am familiar with

Physical Therapy
How it is essential to maintain range of motion

Occupational Therapy
How it is essential to maintain quality of life

Speech Therapy
What I know through my experience By far not even close to what you should know

Medication and Orthotics
Again what I know through experience Much more can be had searching the net or talking with doctors and therapists

CP LINKS
To Federal, State, County, City / Town and School District WebPages. Health links and hopefully links to local disability sites and activity and events calendars just drill down to the page you want

Cerebral Palsy Glossary
Terms used when referring to items related to CP . Many of us may see these on a doctors report and not know what it really means.

More Information of CP provided by NINDS
Perhaps a bit more concise and informed than my attempt to tell of what CP is. 
What Causes Cerebral Palsy?
What are the Risk Factors?
Can Cerebral Palsy Be Prevented?
What Are the Different Forms?
What Other Conditions Are Associated With Cerebral Palsy?
How Does a Doctor Diagnose Cerebral Palsy?
How is Cerebral Palsy Managed?
What Specific Treatments Are Available?
Drug Treatments
Surgery
Orthotic Devices
Assistive Technology
Alternative Therapies
Are There Treatments for Other Conditions Associated with Cerebral Palsy?
Do Adults with Cerebral Palsy Face Special Health Challenges?
What Research Is Being Done?
Where can I get more information?

Specific Neurological Disorders
Many of these do not fall under the heading of CP but are disabilities nonetheless.

My take on the IEP, IDEA 2004 (Public Law 94-142 & Public Law 101-476), and the 504 plan.
In 1990, changes to Public Law 94-142 arrived through the Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments of 1990 (Public Law 101-476). Most apparent was the law’s name change – instead of the Education of the Handicapped Act, it is now called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. IDEA 2004

IEP overview
A Guide to the Individualized Education Program with sections highlighted and comments by me

504 plan & IDEA Q&A
Protecting Students and others with Disabilities also a list of accommodations and modifications as would relate to the school environment.  More on accommodations in the Parent and Educator Guide Appendix E

Parent & Educator Guide of 504 Plan concepts and real life accommodations. Drafted by the OSPI and 5 Puget Sound area School Districts but would be a valuable asset to any fighting for their child's 504 accommodations anywhere U.S.A. 

IDEA 2004 summary&
Title 1 IDEA as written (Public Law 94-142 & Public Law 101-476) 
A lot of legalese and unless you are a lawyer or are looking for specific law probably will not be of much benefit. You will better spend your time reading the Parent and Educator Guide, the IEP overview and the 504 plan & IDEA Q&A

Washington State Chapter 392-172 WAC SPED special education and the IEP
This is Washington State law as regards the IEP and special education
Also a bit about our (current Nov 08) personal battle for Amber

FORUMS (BBS)
Registration is required but please use the forums to ask and receive answers as well as post your needs or what help you can provide

LIVE CHAT

MEMBER PAGES
Those who have joined with me to try to educate everyone of the trials of having a child with CP or other disability and where to find information

Pierce County Events
Local events for the disabled If you know of any let me know I'll post them here

CONTACT US

DONATIONS/GIFTS

AMBER'S STORY
Amber's story from birth to I started this website. Her continuing story is in the Blog

AMBER'S PARENTS
A bit about us and maybe you will get to know why we did what we did and continue to do what we do by knowing a bit about us.

Blog of Amber and Family
The continuing story of Amber and family updated as I have time.

SHARE YOUR STORY
This is different from the Forums as the Forums are where you would post questions and answers.
In the share your story section people like you will post their unique experiences and through what is said you may find you are not alone. You may also find a friend and someone you can relate to. And possibly a way to realize your own goals.

CP FAMILY LINKS
Websites created by people who have CP or someone in their family has CP. Net-etiquette applies. All sites are subject to approval. Banners and text allowed on these links.

NON CP RELATED
OTHER LINKS PAGES
Posted 1st come 1st served. We hope to have many of our friends  and supporters post their pages here. Net-etiquette applies. 
All sites are subject to approval. All Non-CP links are text only with a line or two of information of the link posted.
Please notify me of any broken links so I can remove or fix them. 

JOIN OUR NETWORK
Join with me in trying to educate the public of CP and other disabilities

WHY THIS SITE?
What motivated me to build this site

  CONTACT US
Direct your comments to Robert.

Robert wrote a Science Fiction trilogy while being laid up. It took 4 years to complete and he has for sale Book 1 of the trilogy HERE

He is awaiting editing and copyrights on books 2 & 3 before sending them to the publisher. Book 1 can stand alone and is a complete novel of 237 pages and 135,000+ words in PDF format.

Making Money Online (or not) 
What I've tried and what I believe. The things to watch out for.  Many with disabilities have a very difficult time working a 9 to 5 so working online is a viable alternative. However be wary of those who will take your money and not deliver any worthwhile information.

Other sites I have or to be more precise the wife has and I take care of.

www.tamicraft.com 

www.vintageslips4u.com

Speech Therapy

for The Disabled ( Cerebral Palsy )

      I’m Not a speech Therapist and know absolutely nothing of the mechanics of getting a person to reproduce sounds necessary for speech. I do know that speech therapy is broken into two parts. One is the formation of sounds that are recognizable to produce words or some form of communication this would be speech therapy and the other is the actual using of words in a way that makes sense called language therapy. I also know that a person with Cerebral Palsy could suffer one or both. The determining factor is the extent of the disability.

      Since Amber did not have problems with language I know nothing of this so will concentrate on Speech Therapy. The formation of sounds to produce understandable words.

      There are people who seek speech therapy because of learned deficits. For instance if you were raised in a foreign country and learned that language you may have great difficulty in formation of words in English. Given time these limitations can be overcome because this is a learned speech problem. Though you may speak with an accent the rest of your life it is only because you are lazy and choose not to devote the time necessary to train yourself to speak without an accent. However if you had a stroke at birth you may not have the motor control to move mouth and tongue in a way that enables you to effect certain speech or sounds.  For a person with CP motor control is most often the contributing factor. There are however those who have perfect motor control but have a learning deficit that affects their speech, or a combination of both.

     Again Amber had a stroke at birth and my knowledge is mostly of motor control problems, though she does have learning deficits I do not believe that this interferes with her ability to reproduce sounds. Most of her difficulty can be attributed to motor control.

      If you even remotely think your child might have a speech problem you should see a Speech Therapist as soon as possible. The reason is we learn much easier at a young age and speech is a learned task. It would be much easier to learn correct speech when young that try to correct bad habits later in life. That said a Therapist might not be able to help in some cases or be of limited help. If your child has CP and the CP is the contributing factor through loss of motor control then unless the Therapist is able to find another way to produce a sound than that which is most common, it might be that your child will never be able to form certain sounds. Though with practice communication on some level may be possible.

      In Amber’s case she has left hemiplegia. This affects the motor control of the left side of her body including the mouth and tongue. We started her going to speech therapy at about 1 year old as that is when we noticed the difficulty she was having. Most children struggle with speech when they first learn to talk and most grow out of it and learn proper speech in time. Knowing Amber had CP we thought it best to take her to a Therapist right away. Good thing we did as she spent several years learning how to correctly produce sounds. Some sounds still elude her but she has gotten all she can from therapy. She can speak well enough that most do not notice and those that do seldom comment on the slight difficulty she has with some sounds.

     She is currently taking Spanish in school. A requirement for college entrance is 2 years of a foreign language. It is physically impossible for her to place tongue to roof of mouth and trill her R’s. Believe me she’s tried. She just does not have the motor control to make it happen. Had the therapist worked on this when she was a year old perhaps she could but now at 16 she has already formed all the motor control connections she will and this movement eludes her. It is quite possible she would never have been able to do this anyway therapy or not.

     It is not uncommon for a child to have speech problems especially a child with CP. Therapists can do wonders given time but they too fail at some point. Physical limitations just are not that easy to overcome. If the disability is severe enough the best we can hope for is that we can teach the child to make sounds we recognize for different things. Like a gurgle for thirsty or a moan for having to go to the bathroom. Everything that can be done depends on the severity of the disability and the knowledge of the Therapist.

     When Amber was very young we got a cat. We tried to get her to call it by saying “here kitty kitty” Amber would always say “he ki  ki” I believe most very young children would do the same. The difference was we knew Amber had CP and so we worked with her on forming the correct words. This took considerable time so we let her name the cat ‘kiki’. Yes I know in some languages this refers to crap. But it was the only way she could call the cat at the time. She can now form the words without problem except for a slight problem with the R in HERE. The cat is still called ‘ki ki’. I suppose what I’m trying to get across is to not let speech (sounds) or language (word) difficulties slide. If you see there’s a problem work on fixing it. Don't just let it slide. Just as in the cats case we did allow Amber to call the cat kiki but we did not let it go there. We continued to work with her till she could reproduce the correct sounds. letting your child slide is not doing them any favors. If you know your child has CP or other disability,  seek out a qualified Therapist.

     There really is not anymore I can say on this subject. I would encourage you to Google “Speech Therapy” for more information. And seek the advise of your Doctor and Therapists.

I would suggest you read the page on this site called " More Information of CP provided by NINDS As it delves deeper into CP and its causes and treatments than I do on this page. If you have questions post them in the forums.

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 ALL these pages are open to the public. As such you agree that you are at least 18 years of age when submitting any posts. That you agree and consent that any pictures you send are open source and that You will not hold me or this site liable for any damages whatsoever. That any contact you make with others through this site are solely your responsibility and you in no way will hold this site or me or any person or entity liable in any way for any damages that might occur by your use of this site and the various posts, chat and forums available. If you do not agree to any of these terms then do not use this site.

 

I cannot force any to use the forums but I would encourage you to do so if you have questions you would like answers to or have a statement you would like to make. I know that having to register and using the anti-spambot code makes you have to do one more step than most, but it also insures that the forums are not bombarded by spambots posting crap on the site. I try to check the forums at least weekly (often daily) and I have to say that so far I am disappointed that none have chosen to take advantage of this free opportunity to get and give information. I built this site to help the disabled get information and the use of the forums and sharing your stories is a huge part of that endeavor. Please help one another and I will try to answer what I can as well. We are a community of the disabled or parents of disabled children and we should do whatever we can to help each other gain the upper hand or help each other cope with difficult situations. Just go to the forums page and write down the answer to the anti-spambot question and enter it on the registration page. You only need do this once to have full access to the forums.

 

If you have a site that deals with any disabilities then consider either joining CPFSN.org  (it is totally free) and having a link to your site on the appropriate page (e.g. State, County) as well as the ‘Members’ page or doing a simple link exchange and having your site appear on the ‘CP Family’ links page, if you or your child has CP or any disability.

 

If you do not have CP or a child with CP or have a site devoted to any disability you can still have a reciprocating link placed on the Non-CP related links page. A link exchange would not only show your support of this site but would increase your ranking with search through having another outside link (SEO).

 

Use the ‘Contact Us’ page and email Robert if you are interested in any link exchange or joining CPFSN.org. Send the information of the site you want us to link to and the code you would like entered. I cannot guarantee that all requests will be honored but I will take a personal look and make a fair and unbiased decision.

 

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