Saturday, August 20, 2011  "Why Do You Walk Funny?"  “Why do you
walk funny?” I often hear this question being asked of me by
children when we meet for the first time. Peering into their
eyes, I often see a look of compassionate curiosity on their
faces, reflecting an honest desire to simply understand why I
don't move exactly like the other adults they have met. They're
trying to “connect the dots,” but they don't have all the
information they need to figure it out.  I've found that
explaining cerebral palsy to children sometimes proves to be a
challenging and delicate task. To begin with, I've never really
heard a solid consensus on how “cerebral” should be pronounced.
Is it “sir-re-bral” or “sarah-bral?” Merriam-Webster condones
both pronunciations, almost like “toe-may-toe” and “to-ma-toe,”
so in the end, the easiest thing I've found to do is call it by
its abbreviation, CP. To further complicate matters, it's hard,
even for adults at times, to grasp how CP really has nothing to
do with my legs and everyt