Supporting Students with Cerebral Palsy

A vital element of being an educator is understanding how to meet students where they are at and support their individual needs and dreams. Through this essay, we describe how to support students with cerebral palsy. It is important to understand this orthopedic impairment and different accommodations that exist to assist these students. Due to the nature of cerebral palsy, each student will require unique forms of support, but educators can become aware of the possible resources that exist. Additionally, it is important for educators to collaborate with the students, their parents/guardians, other educators, the school counselor, and other resources in order to create an accessible learning environment for the student. It is especially vital to collaborate with parents, as educators “are the expert[s] in child development and education, but [parents] are the experts in their child and the child's disability” (Ray et al., 2009, p. 22). Through collaboration with parents and other experts, as well as accommodations to address physical, cognitive and communicative, and social and emotional challenges, educators can foster an accessible learning environment that allows students with cerebral palsy to succeed in the classroom and beyond.