how to help my son... - Cerebral Palsy Message Board

cbeealmost30 · 05-25-2006, 03:38 PM

Hi, I am new to this board and posting messages and so I am not really sure where to turn too, hopefully someone here can help. My son, who is 9, was diagnosed with spastic diplegia (not sure if i spelled that correctly) cp in october. it is very mild. he also has multiple learning disorders which his new neurologist called congenital motor dispraxia, and ADHD. He is under a tremendous amount of stress just from everyday life and school, but now he is under even more strain because he has a younger brother which has severe health issues and has had 4 surgeries since August, he is extremely sweet and very sensitive to others feelings and problems and he doesn't express his worries, which i know he has. i try talking to him about his feelings but he is more inclined to just tell me what he thinks i want to hear so that i wont worry about him. anyone have any suggestions on how to help him and also does anyone know if any of his issues are related to one another??? this is so hard on him and i would really like to help him.

Zagreus · 05-26-2006, 06:31 AM

The critical thing right now is probably to make sure he gets Physical Therapy (gross motor skills) and Occupational Therapy (fine motor skills and perception). Start there. Get a prescription for therapies from the neurologist and see if the school system provides PT and OT.

Steffers2318 · 05-26-2006, 12:48 PM

Hello,

In regards to your question if things are related... some people with CP do have apraxia. I think both can be caused by the same incident of brain damage...does your son have trouble speaking? I do not know about the ADHD.

I can relate to him wanting to act like everything is OK. I think that as long as you keep asking him about his feelings and let him know that you will be there anytime he needs to talk, he will eventually be more comfortable sharing. He sounds like a great kid... it's unfortunate your younger son has problems and now you get this diagnosis of CP, but hey, we aren't given anything we can't handle

. Good luck!

cbeealmost30 · 05-26-2006, 06:22 PM

Thank you for writing back. My son had some trouble speaking, in the way of the ability to control his tongue, and mouth muscles. He is in speech therapy through the school, OT through the school, and has adaptive P.E. 2 times a week through the school. I just recently got him into an eval. for PT and also he has an eval for OT scheduled for July.
We do have our hands full, but he really is my main concern, it seems that the things he goes through could possibly be more difficult than the illnesses of his younger brother because we have had such a hard time finding out what is wrong and how to help and also because, for him, whatever his brothers go through, he goes through too.... He really is a wonderful person.

Steffers2318 · 05-27-2006, 09:01 AM

That's good he gets those services through school. I guess you can look at the CP diagnosis as a good thing because now you know what is wrong and will be able to do the appropriate things to help him.

I bet my older sister would also say that she went through the same things as me...when I had surgeries and such she had to be put on the backburner for a while, but kids don't want to complain about that because they want to be a good sibling and be helpful

. And now with your older son having "problems," he probably feels that he is hurting his brother by taking attention away. That's a tough situation, but just shows that he is compassionate. I'm sure things will get better once he gets more comfortable with needing attention too.