Difficulty in education & upbringing of  cerebral palsy children :

The birth of a child with a disability, whether physical, mental or developmental, brings about fresh challenges for the whole family. Apart from financial stress associated with the medical upkeep of the child, there is a whole gamut of emotional, social, physical and academic trauma that are to be faced, both by the child and by the family. Despite a growing awareness of disabilities, the acceptance by people, of a child with developmental disabilities like Cerebral Palsy is still a far cry from what they should be. This only compounds an already existing situation.

Coping with Cerebral Palsy brings extra stress for parents at different times in their lives. The first is when their child is diagnosed with CP, next when its time for schooling and they have to start looking for special schools to educate their child, followed by adolescence with all its heartaches and peer group challenges, and lastly, with age racing against them comes the stress of future care taking of the child.

To be able to face a lifetime of challenges, it is important for parents to understand and accept their child’s condition at the earliest, and seek out an early intervention programme of therapy and education to help their child to become an active and self-reliant member of society. The human brain has an amazing capacity to find new ways of working after any kind of injury. It is this that the family needs to understand and work upon to rehabilitate their child. But, they must remember that the first step towards this rehabilitation lies in love and care, encouragement, typical childhood experiences and the presence of lots of friends and relatives.


Parents can begin by learning more about their child’s condition. This will help them both. Their love, their periods of play together and their treatment of the disabled child as no different from others will instill confidence and security in the child. They must also learn not to make their entire life revolve around therapy alone. They must guide others to step in once in a while and take that much needed break. They have to keep themselves abreast of new treatments and technologies, which will go a long way in rehabilitating their child. They also have to ensure that their child gets a fair chance to study-whether in special schools or in normal schools, as is the case in several countries where an integrated approach to education is the norm.

It may be argued in favour of both; special schools provide a focused approach to understanding and handling these developmentally challenged children; mainstream schools provide that all important inclusion to the disabled child. By placing the disabled and non-disabled children together, the system works at teaching normal children tolerance and acceptance of those who are different, at an early age. The child with CP, in turn, also learns to view himself/herself differently and to cope with his/her disability better, and become a more independent member of society.

The focus of education for a child with Cerebral palsy has to be on improving motor skills to foster independence in day-to-day living, and to encourage cognitive, emotional and social development. A collective, collaborative approach between parents, teachers, doctors, school psychologists, speech and other therapists will work best to provide an individualized approach to successfully rehabilitate the child with Cerebral palsy.