I, Rebecca Ladew, am a cerebral palsy individual who is ambulatory and has hearing and speech impairments.

My life has been a varied and fulfilling one due to the support of my family. I have done many things, even though I suffer from cerebral palsy. During my early years of life, my parents made me realize that I was as able-bodied as the next person. In other words, my disability did not prevent me from achieving certain goals.

At the age of six months, doctors diagnosed that I had cerebral palsy. My parents were reassured that the motor area of the brain was affected and not the intelligence area. They then decided to accept the challenge of making my life as whole and fulfilling as possible. I was diagnosed as a tension athetoid type. This type involved  sudden, involuntary, uncontrolled  movements. From six months to five years of age, my parents and I worked with determination and will power through certain physical therapy exercises and speech therapy to achieve the ultimate of my ability to move about independently and to be able to talk. At the age of five I was among the first cerebral palsied victims ever to be fitted with a wearable hearing aid at Johns Hopkins Hospital. By wearing a hearing aid I became more aware of things around me.

There were no special considerations for my education after it was established early on from psychological testing that I had average to above average intelligence. I went to school like the average child. Like any normal child, I had the same grudges and desires. The first school I attended was the William S. Baer School, a special  school for the handicapped. My education  there was the same as found in any grade school, except physical, speech, and occupational therapy was included along with the 3Rs.

Following the handicapped school, I entered a regular all girls' public high school, Western High School.  Up to now  my life had been sheltered, and it was not until I attended this "normal" all girls' high school, that my world broadened, and I had a taste of what the normal world was like. Life, as I found out quickly, was not a bowl of cherries. How to be accepted in the normal world and looking out for yourself were lessons to be learned at this point in my life. If I wanted to live in the normal world, I had to learn to cope like other people. Somehow I managed to survive in spite of my disability, because, due to  my parents' patience and understanding,  I found that I could cope, after all, in the normal world.

                                A Synopsis of My Life (pg. 2)

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