Most of you know Paige or have seen her on my site and you are aware she is a very sick little girl and that she suffers with Cerebral Palsy these things are visible, some people still stare when we are out together but most people understand that she finds life more difficult and has a lot more to cope with, most people are kind and compassionate.
Paige’s brother Owen he has Autism or at least I should say he is under that umbrella, as their are so many forms of Autism, Owen is a beautiful happy 8 year old but due to his ailment he suffers from lack of core stability which leaves him often trembling, he also walks quite differently to the rest of us, he does not always understand the polite side of life and often finds things very confusing even frightening, to look at him, he seems just like any other child in the playground but he is really very vulnerable, he is in main stream school at the moment but has a full time teaching assistent, my daughter has had to fight for the right to have Owen in main stream school.
Owen has done really well in main stream education, he works very hard, my daughter was very worried that if Owen was placed in a special unit he would think that a lot of abnormal behaviour was then normal, as we strive everyday to insist that Owen grasps that he must work at fitting in and that some things will not be tolerated, but the pain hits hard when you see people staring at him or kids calling him strange, most people would not know Owen has the problems he has but my daughter has felt she now has to teach Owen to say to people when he is frightened or scared that he is sorry he cannot understand because he is Autistic.
Looking back on my life I often think when I was younger I did not understand about Autism or Downs or CP and I often felt nervous when near people that suffered with thesethings, I too sometimes looked twice but that was due to my ignorance now as I have worked with these people and have my grandchildren with these ailments I want for us all to teach young children about these things so they grow up understanding that not everyone is blessed with being healthy and normal, and sometimes when we see odd behaviour it is because that person really cannot help it, maybe we can make a more understanding community
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