Cerebral Palsy Causes and Risks

Karthik Chandrashekhar, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when he was only two, talks about his personal life, his family, his quest for employment and his professional life. And his INSPIRATION. Please tell us a bit about your condition I am a person affected with cerebral palsy. I am a quadruplegic, and all my 4 limbs are affected. I was born premature at 8 months. I was diagnosed when I was 2 years old. What were the early symptoms? I didn't cry like all other babies do. I did everything…

Mitr is a vibrant community centre in Chennai for parents who have children with special needs, where you can bond with like-minded families, sit back and relax at the Special Needs Mitr Cafe, or engage in an exciting range of vocational classes and activities held for both parents and kids. Parents of children with special needs may feel isolated and disheartened coping with medical, financial, educational and emotional issues. Mitr is a centre in Chennai for serving parents of children who…

Says Chennai based 26-year-old Kumaran Kumanan, who is an author, a counseling psychologist, a PhD student, an avid Facebook user, living with cerebral palsy. Read his interview on making Inclusion possible. Meet Kumaran Kumanan author of Aanantha Thaandavam, an autobiography in Tamil. The English version of the autobiography aptly titled "CP to CP" Cerebral Palsy to Counseling Psychologist” was released on September 11 2014. Tell us about yourself, Kumaran. I am from Chennai! I have cerebral…

On Fragile X Awareness Day, Avanti Balachander,18 shares her insights of living with her brother who has Fragile X and ADHD. And her three wishes.  16 years ago my brother was born. 14 years ago he was diagnosed with Fragile X and ADHD. I would like to say it was all dandy. And that once we knew what the issue was we could work on it. But man it was difficult. No one knew anything about Fragile X back then, we had to figure it out as we went.  We were so lucky Dhruv was even verbal…

Shaloo Sharma, the head of a school in Gurgaon committed to inclusive education and Sunil Bhatt, a certified physical instructor for children with special needs from Ancramdale, New York share their views on the importance of Adaptive Physical Education for children with disabilities. Adaptive Physical Education - A rights-based approach to accessible play. Every child has the right to play. According to the Right To Education, it is mandatory for every school to have a robust Physial Education…

Janaki Balakrishnan is not just a parent whose son has multiple disabilities, but also a Special educator and an active member of parent support organisations. She shares her observations of parents who are in similar situations and what they should ideally avoid for stress-free caregiving roles I am a parent of a young adult with special needs and live in Chennai. My 22 year old son (only child), is deaf and mute and has multiple issues such as cerebral palsy, seizures, profound mental…

Chitra Iyer, mother of 18-year-old Shravan with autism, feels all her challenges and hardships melt away and every moment of life becomes worth living when a beautiful smile radiates across her son’s face. Here she shares Shravan’s childhood and preparing a life plan for him for the next 20 years. When Shravan came into our lives we were overjoyed. The fact that he survived the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) for 26 days and came home with us was itself a huge victory. When he would cry…

The Rehabilitation Research and Device Development (R2D2) lab at IIT Madras, headed by Dr. Sujatha Srinivasan, is involved in research related to design and development of mechanisms, products and assistive devices for people with impairments. Let’s take a look at some of their pioneering products. Dr. Sujatha Srinivasan has established the Rehabilitation Research and Device Development (R2D2) lab (now the TTK Center for R2D2) in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Madras with a…

The parents and families of children with special needs go through a lot of stress and anxiety in bringing up their children. Dr Roma Kumar, a Senior Consultant in Clinical Psychology, discusses various issues that these parents have to tackle on an almost everyday basis and possible solutions. Q1. Different research and surveys across the world show that more than 50% of the parents of children with disabilities suffer from anxiety, stress and depression. In your experience in India what are…

Siddharth Jayakumar has Cerebral Palsy but did not want a data entry job. He loves to work in an office and interact with people. He shares the high points of his career as a senior banker, challenges of his professional life and advise for both people seeking jobs and hiring managers. How long have you been working Siddharth? I have been working for close to 12 years now in the banking industry in the area of trade finance. I started my career in 2005 witth ABN Amro/RBS and I’m now with the…