The Hurricane Inside (1970s)

[Applause] imagine for a moment that you know this boy he could be your neighbor someone in your own family maybe you could put yourself in his place imagine what it is like to be Bill chapella to be 1 years old and to have cerebral paly and think how important it would be to have a job to feel some Independence to be able to work hard at something you can be proud of Bill and thousands of young men and women like him today have a chance to learn to contribute something useful and to become part of a larger community Through the help of United cerebal paly this is Santa Ana California a United Cerebral Center typical of the hundreds of centers across the country for the adults and children who are part of these programs the UCP Center is school job and Recreation try to imagine what it is like to live with cerebral py to have a speech impediment which always gets in the way of what you want to express to have legs that refuse to support you hands that make a difficult problem out of the simplest task to have a physical handicap that hides the real person inside Beverly Simpson has spent 21 years of her life in bed she has never been to school but she taught herself to read and write for her the UCP Center means a whole new life [Applause] after years of isolation it is often hard to adjust to group activities working together on a common project makes it easier to forget shyness and the newcomers learn to forget their embarrassment through involvement in their work what goes on here has more than just psychological value behind it is a practical business motive the decorations will be sold to stores supply houses and private organizations Ruth cotlar is director of the work activity program here she designs the displays and arranges their Construction in steps that will provide a job for everyone it is especially important that each person has a task he can perform independently hundreds of these decorative items are sold and rented every year the income helps support the program and pays the cost of sending the group to summer camp instead of idleness ity instead of dependence responsibility and in place of isolation companionship and a true understanding a lot good oh yes but see what time Richard Rosman has had excellent therapy for a severe speech problem but there's another kind of therapy the kind offered by a friend like Dolores Whitman the kind that comes from sharing of a common experience Dolores has a special talent for helping people overcome their shyness she knows that talking about a problem helps you to learn to accept it without self-pity like um you I noticed that you have trimers how does this this affect you and and how do you feel about this it it affects me quite a bit I'm sorry to say when you're walking down the street and you you see a group of people and you have to walk by them nowh to go around them and you think to yourself oh I want to walk straight now and and and that's when the very time it gets hard this is when you fall apart right that you're walking into walls and whatever because you're what what happens is you're concentrating on it too hard yes and then you're so afraid people World make fun yes and this hold you back gives you many second thoughts this more or less draws you gradually we are learning about cerebral paly what causes it and what we can do about it in every case cerebral py results from abnormality in brain function the specific causes are many it may have been related to a premature birth a chemical disorder of the blood an illness early in pregnancy many causes have yet to be understood but whatever the cause children who are born with Cerebral paly or who develop it early in life can be helped of great significance is the new emphasis on early evaluation and pre- Nursery learning even before the age of two a child with cerebral paly can now be started on a program to Aid critical development of sensory and motor skills speech and social responses this is a pre- nursery program at UCLA it gives handicapped children a chance to build normal social relationships it also provides individual training and treatment one of the many new treatment techniques is being used to help Tammy Roberts with a soft motorized brush and a stick of ice Tammy is being taught what most children learn automatically cerebral Paul can impair the function of the muscles which control the diaphragm this often means that a child will not develop adequate use of the lungs without special help the tickle of the brush is a stimulation that helps Tammy expel all the breath from her lungs she reacts to the ice with a deeper intake of air proper breathing is necessary if Tammy is to develop normal control of speech can you say something say hi the support of united cerebral py helps to maintain programs like this one and to educate a wider audience of parents and professional workers to the possibilities of new teaching and treatment techniques and one two three there we go now let's turn you over what is learned in teaching tamy may be applied in the teaching of many children with related handicaps and Tammy like the other children at the UCLA program makes a contribution to the growing research in understanding causes of cerebral and developing more effective treatment look right at the cow look at his funny tail up here conductors tap to Tammy's forehead and temples pick up a small electrical charge created by the movement of her eyes Dr Margaret Jones and Her colleague Dr Glenn o Dayton Jr are studying eye movement among CP children with help from a grant by United cereal py that's a good that's a as Tammy follows the pictures on a moving panel the tracking pattern of her eyes is recorded electronically deviations otherwise unnoticeable are preserved for future study and comparison erratic eye movement is characteristic of many children with cerebral paly this method of direct electrical recording of eye movement May Aid in early diagnosis and suggest specific treatment and educational needs okay okay what you see now is a small victory Tammy is just learning how to use her arms to help Propel herself forward a normal child May learn to crawl at 6 or 8 months usually with no instruction from anybody else but for the child with cerebral paly basic motor skills crawling standing walking and maintaining balance can be insurmountable problems without proper help very good modern treatment techniques like the exercise has demonstrated on this giant ball have offered New Hope in teaching even severely involved children by Rolling the ball Mrs Johnson helps Tammy learn to deal with gravity she is beginning to show progress in using her arms for balance you forgot you didn't put your head down you forgot you didn't put your head down this kind of teaching makes tremendous demands on skill and patience progress is often very slow frequently there are setbacks persistence and faith and the expert's knowledge of many techniques convince Mrs Johnson that eventually Tammy will learn if not with one method perhaps with another maybe not tomorrow or the next day but someday this is part of what Tammy must learn too there is no easy way there is no method to make a handicap just disappear and there will be many failures before there is Success when I was a child I I probably couldn't even get out of word straight M and when you have cerebral poliy learning some things will always be an uphill struggle how do you learn to accept the day-to-day failures and setbacks without becoming resigned to defeat I I realized that it's a lot better for me since I've arrived at this Center but there are still times when I feel very much tied down that I cannot seem for the life of me to express myself yes and to express my feelings yes I can understand that it's it's hard I have felt times like that myself but what do you do when you want to express yourself and something comes out and no matter how it comes out you you know it's going to come out the wrong way there just isn't too much you can do with it but just try to to live with it but don't you feel the frustration oh yes it's it's like a it's like a it's like a hurricane inside of you and and it it feels like it's it's going to explode in minute but like a hurricane it blows over in p learning to survive the failures and frustrations and to keep on trying sometimes depends on having a friend who can truly understand what it is like and sometimes it depends on forgetting yourself completely through involvement with others Dolores often volunteers as a teacher's aid like many UCP centers this one includes a developmental program for children whose educational handicaps are too severe for most public school programs learning to use the telephone is a practical skill but even more important for Matt is learning to carry on a conversation hello hello hello is this is Zoo yes it is uh may I help you okay I would like you [Applause] uh I guess that's so oh there's you know like other things wouldn't you like some monkeys yeah monkeys yeah okay monkeys volunteers who Aid the regular staff help give each child in the developmental program a chance for individual attention each child has a learning and treatment program designed to give him help where he needs it most but for all the children at the center language development and communication within a group is stressed and does anybody know what this is a batter with the benefit of the developmental program some children will eventually qualify for public school programs Others May continue their learning here until they are old enough to join the work activities for adults the United Cerebral paly centers are more than workshops or schools in a very important sense they are our whole communities they offer the Dignity of useful work the help of trained staff and perhaps most important the chance for a real social [Music] [Applause] life for some the center offers the first hope for a life beyond the limits of their own families imagine what it is like for them maybe it is the first chance to help someone else else or the chance to be like other children to go to school a real job a place to go every day a reason to get up in the morning [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] happy birthday to you happy birthday to you bir dear [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] toy imagine what it is like like for Susan she is 21 years old she cannot speak and she will probably spend the rest of her life in a wheel chair but the spirit survives she is warm and gay and she loves her friends imagine what it means to her to have someone to help blow out the candles on her [Applause] cake happy birthday happy birthday you happy birthday de happy birth