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Hi, my name is Bryan Burhart. I was born with Cerebral Palsey on June 18, 1977.
When I was born the umbilical cord was born first. The doctor at the hospital said, I might be deaf, mentally impaired, or
have Cerebral Palsey. My mom and dad took me home and took care of me like they would care for any other infant. My mom began
noticing that my legs were tight and I would lift up my whole body when she changed my clothes.
This is when my parents took me to see Dr. Lyon. Doctor Lyon was an orthopedic doctor
at Henry Ford Hospital. At my first appointment with Dr. Lyon, he told my parents that I had cerebral palsey. He explained
to my mom and dad that people with C.P. have different levels of C.P. People with mild C.P. can walk with a limp and talk
differently, or people with serve C.P. are in a wheelchair and have a communicator for them to talk to other people. I have
serve C.P. I am in a wheelchair, and I have a communicator, called "Liberator", to talk to people.
At the age of three months old I started my educational years, my mom started to take
me to early invention. The way that early invention works is that parents take their disabled babies to early invention, which
is at the Intermediate School District. The babies receive physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and social
work. While the babies are getting therapies, the parents are in a parents group talking about issues that effect them as
a parents having a child with a disability. The topics could range from IEPS to how to cope with a disabled child. My mom
could not stay very long at the meetings because I used to cry for my mom. When the therapist brought back my mom, I used
to smiled and be happy.
When I was done with early invtervention, I went to a pre-school room
that was at the ISD. The pre-school program at the ISD has the same activities for the students like any other pre-school
in the county. I can remember singing, coloring, and playing with toys. The special activites we did were having the Mc Donald's
characters visit us, having an end of the year picnic, and having a graduation ceremony which my Grandpa Bob and
Grandma Peg attended.
From the pre-school program at the ISD, I went to Manor Elementary School. At manor,
the ISD has a room called the "POHI" room. The word "POHI" stands for "'Physically Otherwise Health Impaired" The "POHI" room
is set up the same way the pre-school was set up, meaning that the students are expected to do work like any other elementary
school student does. We had the regular text books. I started out by orally telling the teacher the answers of the question.
My hardest subject was math, and my easiest subject was English. I was in a regular second grade class for science, social
studies, and a music class. I liked being out in the regular second grade class room because I was around kids and was able
to talk about kids topics. My grandma Rose liked to come to my music concerts in the spring time or at Christmas time. When
students reach the thrid grade, Manor Elementary makes the teachers teach science and social studies both in the same day.
Miss Wood felt that I could not handle both subjects in the same day because of all of my therapies. It was hard for Miss
Wood to keep to a schedule for me. I can remember a time when, a physical therapist felt that she needed two people to lift
me, so she changed the schedule to a time when there were two people in the room. The problem was, I was in an out class during
the time when the P.T. wanted to see me. Miss Wood and the P.T. got into a fight. I can not remember what the outcome was,
all I know is my mom got involved, and that means, it worked out for me. I was in an out class during my second, third, and
fourth grades years. I was in the POHI room for eight years.
After Manor, I went to Ida High School. Ida High School had another POHI room just like
Manor. The only difference was, students could take middle school classes as well as High School classes because the middle
school was right next door to the high school. My first year at Ida High School, the teachers went out on strike. I can remember,
my grandpa Al was a salary worker, and when my mom used to drop my brother Adam and me off at my grandpa's house, my
grandpa used to give my mom a hard time by saying, I am thinking about going to Ida schools and teaching classes myself. After
a big board meeting, I think both sides gave in a little. My first out class at Ida class was skills for adolescences, taught
by Mr. Hammond. In skills, we leaned about teen issues such as puberty, sex, and social skills. I liked skills because it
helped explain a lot of things going on in my body. After skills for adolescences, I started to take a lot more of out classes.
While I was at Ida, I saw two fellow classmates die, Sarah Rtife and Lisa Peace. I went to both of their funerals. It was
hard to see two friends die. I began at Ida in 1990 and I graduated from Ida in 1999. The graduation ceremony was a typical
high school graduation ceremony with speeches and passing out of diplomas.
In the fall of 1999, I began my college education at Monroe County Community
College. Monroe County Community College has a lab called "The Learning Assistance Lab," which is run by Dr. Cynthia Riedel.
The Learning Assistance Lab is a lab where disabled student can go to get services such as, notetaking, tutoring, or test
reader/scribe. I used to get note taking and test reader/scribe. My first class was Basic English 090 which was taught by
Ann Orwin. Mrs. Orwin was nice to me by asking me, if I understood everything, or if I could see the board. I took about five
classes from her, and I did well in them. I took other classes besides Basic English 090 classes taught by Ann
Orwin. I took computer classes such as intro to the Internet. computer principles, access, powerpoint and excel. Some
of the other classes that I took were intro to business, principle of management, polical science, business writing, and technical
writing. I took a business math class. As I said, math is my hardest subject, so I took it as a pass/fail
class. I graduated from Monroe County Community College in April of 2005. My care giver, Maragret,
pushed me down the isle.
Since then, I took two more computer classes, I've been looking
for a job, and both of my grandpas have died. Recently, I am doing an internship at the Monroe
Center for Indepent Living. The Center for Indepent Living is a place where people with disabilities can
come if they are having a problem in their life. The Center for Independent Living tries
slove the problem by either teaching the consumer a new skill I want to have a
microbusiness, building web pages, so if you are wanting a web page to be built, please e-mail me.
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