National Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day marks a fitting occasion to get familiar with individuals living with the condition. The following post includes Amazon affiliate links to some books which will help you do this. As an Amazon affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases.
If you notice people out in the masses March 25th wearing green, do not go looking for corn beef and green beer. Rather than a belated St. Patrick’s Day celebration, these people will wear green to recognize National Cerebral Palsy (CP) Awareness Day. At least the majority will. A few might wear green coincidentally just because they like green, but I digress.
The important point, the United States recognizes March 25th as National Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disabilities & Stroke (NINDS) cerebral palsy “refers to any one of a number of neurological disorders that appear in infancy or early childhood and permanently affect body movement and muscle coordination but don’t worsen over time.”
For more textbook knowledge on cerebral palsy like the different types and treatment options I recommend visiting March of Dimes’ informational cerebral palsy page. I think linking you to the page proves better than me parroting the information here. After all, the textbook knowledge bores me a bit.
Admittedly though, the textbook knowledge stands very important. Such information serves as the foundation to understand CP. Once you establish your foundation you can enjoy the more interesting aspect to cerebral palsy awareness, learning personal stories!
Getting to Know Those with Cerebral Palsy
Memoirs by authors with CP offer one avenue to become familiar with the aforementioned. From the CP memoirs I read Someone Like Me: An Unlikely Story of Challenge and Triumph Over Cerebral Palsy
Fun fact, writing Off Balanced helped me form more connections with my fellow brethren in cerebral palsy. Probably my deepest connections lay within the #CPChatNow community, the live cerebral palsy Twitter chat I co-host every Wednesday at 8pm ET with Devin Axtman.
Consider joining #CPChatNow sometime. Follow the instructions below to start participating!
1. Sign into Twitter a few minutes before 8pm ET.
2. Search for “#CPChatNow.” Make sure you change results from “Top” to “Latest.”
3. Add to the conversation. Make sure to include “#CPChatNow” in your tweet.
If you prefer to stay away from Twitter, I respect your preference. We can keep the conversation going here. To commemorate National Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day, let me ask. What CP memoir would you recommend others read? Leave your suggestion in the “Comments” section below.
Until next time, remember. Don’t blend in. Blend out!
-Zachary
“At least the majority will”
I don’t agree
https://cerebralpalsynewstoday.com/blog/2017/03/02/honoring-cerebral-palsy-awareness-month
Thanks for the comment swspence. I was speaking of the majority of people you see wearing green as opposed to the majority of people in general. I wasn’t trying to say CP Awareness Month is widely recognized. I agree with the points in the article you linked to about working together in March to get CP Awareness Month more notice.