“Anybody who is different is looked at and stared at. That happens around the globe,” observes Sue Whitney when asked how society views children with cerebral palsy (CP).
As co-director and professor of the Master of Science in Physical Therapy (MSPT) program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (SHRS), Whitney has decades of experience teaching students and working with adults and children who have neuromuscular movement disorders. For children, a life of independence and prosperity could easily be disregarded by society. Their ungainly stance and inability to control subtle motor skills, like hand movements, elicit stares and often relegate them to a life of constant caregiving by family and special education classes in school. “It’s really hard for parents,” Whitney continues. “I think it’s especially hard because these kids grow older and become adults, and I think people are nicer to children than they are to adults. We need to train children to be productive members of society so that they can be employed.”