CPF Executive Director Rachel Byrne and Jason Benetti talk about his hard work, misperceptions, resilience, and his experience with cerebral palsy.

CPF Executive Director Rachel Byrne and Xian Horn, author and disability advocate discuss breaking down stereotypes.

Growing up with Cerebral Palsy I often wondered if I would ever experience my happily ever after. The fairytales my mom read me always followed the life of a beautiful princess falling in love with a handsome prince. You never read about a prince and princess in wheelchairs or with any type of disability for that matter.

CPF Executive Director Rachel Byrne and Lily Collison with Kara Buckley and individuals from the book Pure Grit, talk about what it takes to be successful with a disability.

The hardest part of raising two children with Cerebral Palsy is the fact that we live in a world that refuses to adapt to anything beyond ordinary. And I have always -- always -- known that Benjamin and Mason were far beyond ordinary.

Don't miss Part 2 of this very special podcast series when podcast host Cynthia Frisina dives deeper with Michael Kutcher into his life growing up with cerebral palsy, his "coming of age" as the twin brother of actor Christopher "Ashton" Kutcher, and what Michael is doing now with his new "diffability" concept and continued advocacy work on behalf of people with disabilities and organ transplants recently featured in Forbes Magazine https://www.forbes.com/sites/karlmoore/2021/07/08/michael-kutcher-on-turning-obstacles-into-opportunities/?sh=6ed0e70f722f

Dating can be scary, all of the questions that go through your head before a first date can often be overwhelming. What do I wear? What do we talk about? Does my breath stink? These are common concerns before any normal date. My brain was wrapping itself around the idea that this was my FIRST DATE EVER.

Wonder what it's like to grow up as Michael Kutcher? On this episode of "Let's Talk CP" Michael Kutcher and host Cynthia Frisina dive deep into Michael's childhood and journey to adulthood - including the good, the not so good and the very surprising. You won't want to miss what Michael has to say in this very candid and intimate conversation.

My boys were exactly the same amazing, lovable, adorable, brilliant little boys after the diagnosis, that they had been before it. The exact same.

All adolescents and young adults experience some peer pressure to engage in drinking or other risky behaviors. Adolescents with cerebral palsy engage in risky behaviors just like other teenagers. Some families find it helpful to sign what's called, a Contract for Life, or a Contract for Safety, with their child. The parent agrees not to yell in the moment and to have a conversation about it the next day. That's one way that adolescents and parents can create some zone of safety around drinking.

A year ago, I wrote in my Forbes column about the decades-long pattern of Pride Month celebrations excluding people with disabilities. The underlying reason why Pride events were (and still are) mostly inaccessible for people with disabilities, both in terms of physical spaces and social acceptance, is that mainstream media and public don’t see them having identities outside of their disabilities.

I have cerebral palsy spastic diplegia. So it affects my legs and sometimes my fine motor skills. I walk with two canes. I do things a little slower, but I get things done.

One thing that parents can say to start a conversation with their kids is, "Let's talk".

I spent many years and many hours learning how to make the body work better, how to bring it out of pain. But that's not the human being alone.

One of the things that was identified through research is that patients with cerebral palsy have higher rates of depression and anxiety than you would see in the general population.

Receiving early diagnoses or high‐risk for CP classification is a parent priority. Alignment between parents and providers exists for International Classification of Function domains of body functions/structures and activity, but less for those of environment, personal, and participation.

My name is Nathalie Maitre, I work at Nationwide Children's Hospital. I'm a physician and a researcher

Owen is our third baby and after a healthy pregnancy and making it to 38 weeks, I thought we would coast into life with three kids and adapt to the beautiful chaos that is life outnumbered by little ones. Somewhere in between, I ended up watching as my newborn baby was packed up into a life-flight helicopter and whisked away before I even got a chance to hold him. I would do whatever it took to get to Owen at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, I would will him from hundreds of miles away to hang on, to fight long enough for me to get there – and then we could do “whatever it took” together.

As a physician and researcher, I skeptically looked forward to learning more about mindfulness practice, because there is evidence it helps with stress management, self-regulation, focus, productivity and happiness. As a mom, I felt that weird mix of guilt that I was going to focus on “not-my-children” for a whole day, excited anticipation and anxiety that maybe I would be a complete failure at this. It turns out all the mental baggage I took into the workshop was the exact opposite of what mindfulness tries to achieve. The daily practice has since changed my life.

What we learned from our defensive lifestyle is that it’s normal to feel this way. It is a lot of information to process all at once and it’s an emotional rollercoaster immediately following a CP diagnosis. We realized that our diagnosis wasn’t what defined our child. She is an amazing little girl who is full of personality, she isn’t a fragile flower that needs to be sheltered, and by realizing this we were able to go on the offensive, and attack the challenges head on.

PTSD can be common in parents after a child with Cerebral Palsy has left the NICU. One of the hardest days of my life as a NICU parent was not what I would have expected it to be. It was the day I went home without my baby, after spending every waking moment since my emergency C-section by his incubator. I never knew I had a dream about what it would be like to have a baby until that dream was taken away.