Speaker 1: Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Roger Bassick.
Speaker 2: And I'm Marina Sante. Spotslight uses a special English method
Speaker 2: of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no
Speaker 2: matter where in the world they live.
Speaker 1: He sinks into a wheelchair. His fingers are bent and strange.
Speaker 1: No one can understand his speech. It sounds like he
Speaker 1: is mumbling. He needs help wiping his face. His hands
Speaker 1: and arms do not work properly. He looks frustrated and confused.
Speaker 1: He seems helpless. Is he stupid? Is he mentally challenged? No,
Speaker 1: he is not. He is intelligent. He makes good decisions.
Speaker 1: He just has cerebral palsy.
Speaker 2: Today's Spotslight is on cerebral palsy, or CP. We examine
Speaker 2: what is involved in this condition. We explore incorrect views
Speaker 2: about the mental abilities of people with CP. We discuss
Speaker 2: false judgments about those with the disorder. We learn about
Speaker 2: several people living amazing lives with CP.
Speaker 1: Certain areas of the human brain control muscle movement. A
Speaker 1: person may develop cerebral palsy when these areas do not
Speaker 1: grow properly. Brain damage also causes cerebral palsy. These problems
Speaker 1: usually happen during the child's development in the womb, or
Speaker 1: during the process of childbirth. Sometimes it happens during the
Speaker 1: first few years of a child's life. The brain damage
Speaker 1: causes a child to learn something things more slowly. It
Speaker 1: is harder for him to learn to roll over, crawl,
Speaker 1: or walk. Cerebral Palsy might cause a child to use
Speaker 1: one side of his body more than the other. He
Speaker 1: may not be able to control his movements. His arms
Speaker 1: could be softer or stiffer than normal.
Speaker 2: There is no cure for cerebral palsy. Certain operations and
Speaker 2: medicine can sometimes help, but nothing completely heals it. Forty
Speaker 2: to fifty percent of people with CP must use a wheelchair.
Speaker 2: Some of these people can walk, but not for long distances.
Speaker 2: One out of three people with CP cannot walk at all.
Speaker 1: People with CP have different needs. Some people need help
Speaker 1: twenty four hours a day. They may need help even
Speaker 1: at night. Their physical restrictions do not allow them to
Speaker 1: care for themselves. Others must hire caregivers to help them
Speaker 1: for certain hours a day. Some need much less help,
Speaker 1: but help often costs a lot. The average lifetime cost
Speaker 1: of care for someone with cerebral palsy is between one
Speaker 1: and five million US dollars. In some countries, people with
Speaker 1: CP qualify for government help, but often they must raise
Speaker 1: extra money or they ask their families for help.
Speaker 2: Forty percent of people with cerebral palsy have some sort
Speaker 2: of mental problem. This problem could be troubled talking. It
Speaker 2: may be a short attention span. Sometimes it is anxiety
Speaker 2: or anger. It also may be a learning difficulty.
Speaker 1: These difficulties do not mean that a person with CP
Speaker 1: is not smart. It just means that she needs help
Speaker 1: and patience. It is important for caregivers or family members
Speaker 1: who help people with CP not to try to think
Speaker 1: for them. People with CP want their needs met. They
Speaker 1: want their desires to be heard. They do not want
Speaker 1: to be told what to do. They do not need
Speaker 1: someone to control their lives. They just need help because
Speaker 1: their bodies do not work under their complete control.
Speaker 2: For Richard Heron of Fort Worth, Texas, the worst part
Speaker 2: of having cerebral palsy is feeling helpless. Richard was born
Speaker 2: with cerebral palsy. Throughout his life, many people mistakenly thought
Speaker 2: that he could not think for himself. His parents even
Speaker 2: puts him in a mental hospital when he was young.
Speaker 2: They thought he was mentally challenged.
Speaker 1: As an adult, Richard has caregivers work for him. His
Speaker 1: caregivers operate a lift attached to a ceiling that pulls
Speaker 1: them out of bed. The lift picks them up and
Speaker 1: places him in a wheelchair. His caregivers help him get dressed,
Speaker 1: They help him make phone calls and write emails. They
Speaker 1: drive him to meetings. But the one thing they can
Speaker 1: never do is speak for Richard. He is the boss.
Speaker 1: When he speaks with someone else, the caregiver can only
Speaker 1: help make his speech clear. Richard's speech is harder to
Speaker 1: understand because of his CP. He even hangs a sign
Speaker 1: on his wheelchair that reads, I am not drunk. Listeners
Speaker 1: must be patient when he speaks.
Speaker 2: Richard was once at a dentist's office to care for
Speaker 2: his teeth. It was taking a long time for the
Speaker 2: woman making appointments to understand Richard. His caregiver was not patient.
Speaker 2: The caregiver finally told the caregiver finally told her to
Speaker 2: make the appointments for next Thursday. This is not what
Speaker 2: Richard's said or wanted. He was very upset. Together they
Speaker 2: left the dentist's office.
Speaker 1: Richard yelled at his caregiver in front of everyone. Am
Speaker 1: I stupid? Richard screamed, of course you are not.
Speaker 2: His caregiver said, I was just trying to speed things up.
Speaker 1: Richard stared at his caregiver for a moment. He wanted
Speaker 1: to make sure he was listening. Then Richard said, I
Speaker 1: decide when to speed up, I decide when to slow down.
Speaker 1: I am the boss.
Speaker 2: Richard has fired several caregivers for this type of mistake.
Speaker 2: He takes it very seriously. His cerebral palsy limits many
Speaker 2: of his physical abilities. He needs help with daily tasks
Speaker 2: that others do not. The one area which he controls
Speaker 2: is thinking and making decisions. When someone tries to think
Speaker 2: and speak for him, he does not tolerate it. He
Speaker 2: feels overlooked and insignificant. He feels like everyone assumes he
Speaker 2: is not smart.
Speaker 1: Richard earned his bachelor's degree in college. Then he earned
Speaker 1: his master's degree. He became a Christian minister, He got
Speaker 1: married and started a family. He is very smart and capable.
Speaker 1: He just needs people to be patient with his slower
Speaker 1: speaking skills.
Speaker 2: Afea Kabir and Nila was born with cerebral palsy in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Speaker 2: Schools would not accept her because of her CP. Several
Speaker 2: schools rejected her. They thought that other students could get
Speaker 2: cerebral palsy from her, as if CP was an infectious disease.
Speaker 2: The school finally accepted her. She attended in her wheelchair.
Speaker 2: She worked hard, but communication was difficult.
Speaker 3: Nilla said, I attended the school regularly, but I cannot
Speaker 3: write and stand. Many times at school people cannot understand me.
Speaker 3: I have a woman who writes for me, but often
Speaker 3: she does not understand I have to spell out the words.
Speaker 1: When she was fourteen, Anila went to an international gathering
Speaker 1: in Goa, India. The gathering was about disabilities. Two hundred
Speaker 1: people from around the world attended. Aniela was the youngest
Speaker 1: person there. Aniela impressed everyone with a ten minute speech.
Speaker 1: In her speech, she.
Speaker 3: Said, it is painful when I go to the market
Speaker 3: and people stare I am not included in schools. I
Speaker 3: have seen my mother cry so many times because of this.
Speaker 2: Today, Annilla studies law at North South University. She fights
Speaker 2: for the rights of disabled people. She gives speeches that
Speaker 2: move others. Nila, like Richard and others with cerebral palsy,
Speaker 2: has goals and courage. They have dreams. They just need
Speaker 2: a little help reaching them. But most of all, they
Speaker 2: need to be listened to. They need the world to see.
Speaker 2: They need the world to see more than their wheelchairs.
Speaker 1: Do you know anyone with cerebral palsy? Is there some
Speaker 1: kind of challenge in your life that you are trying
Speaker 1: to overcome? You can leave a comment on our website
Speaker 1: at www dot Spotlight English dot com. You can also
Speaker 1: find us on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Blue Sky, and ex.
Speaker 1: You can also get our programs delivered directly to your
Speaker 1: and writer Apple device through our free official Spotlight English app.
Speaker 2: The writer of this program was Peter Anderson. The producer
Speaker 2: was mitchio Ozaki. The voices you heard were from the
Speaker 2: United States and the United Kingdom. All quotes were adapted
Speaker 2: for this program and voiced by Spotslight. This program is
Speaker 2: called I Am Not Drunk.
Speaker 1: We hope you can join us again for the next
Speaker 1: Spotlight program. Goodbye,