• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Cerebral Palsy Scotland

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Home
  • Who we are
    • Our mission and values
    • What we do and why
    • Our story
    • Our team
    • Vacancies
    • Key documents
    • Our centre
  • How we help
    • Therapy for adults
    • Therapy for children
    • Support
    • Training
    • Campaigning
    • Our impact
  • What’s on
    • Events
    • Annual conference
  • Other support
    • Support directories
    • Financial support & equipment funding
    • Advice from parents
    • Online support groups
    • Support for schools
    • Legal support
  • Get information
    • All about cerebral palsy
    • Children
    • Adults
    • Therapy & treatment
    • Oral health
  • News
    • News
    • Blog
  • Get involved
    • Friends of Cerebral Palsy Scotland
    • Raise money
    • Leaving a gift in your Will
    • Corporate partners
    • Philanthropy and major donors
    • Other ways to give
    • Other ways to get involved
    • Shop
    • Trusts
    • Our promise to you

Melissa’s story – our school and therapy experiences

Melissa’s story – our school and therapy experiences

“It’s a battle to get her to do half an hour of physio, but she’ll do two hours of gymnastics.”

Melissa’s mum Jennifer offers her advice on the difficult early years, why you should always be prepared for surprises, and why confidence is probably the greatest improvement to come out of therapy.

“The best advice I got from one therapist was;  “We don’t know how this child is going to turn out”. It all depends on how much input they get and how they respond. The most annoying thing is that you desperately want to know how your child will turn out. However, as hard as it is, it is absolutely the best way. Just do as much as you can for your child and they will surprise you.

Melissa is kind of wobbly, she has athetoid cerebral palsy, she’s not well co-ordinated, and her balance isn’t good. But she does make herself understood. She does walk, and she does career around like a madwoman, especially if there’s a soft gym mat under her.

Advice to other parents

It is a very scary thing when you’re diagnosed but actually it’s just a different world. It’s not as bad as you might think. When Melissa was younger I’d think parents were looking at me feeling sorry for me because I had a child who was different, but there’s a lot of worse things in the world than CP and Melissa can’t imagine life without it because it’s part of her. You do just get used to things.

Going to nursery

Melissa went to mainstream school from specialist nursery. The staff in the specialist nursery worked so well I was worried about her leaving that environment. Our physio made a request for Bobath therapy in the summer holidays before she started school.

Melissa wasn’t actually walking. Her therapists asked “Can you stand?” “How long can you stand for?” Can you do this?” I think Melissa suddenly thought “Oh I’m doing a lot of things I didn’t think I could do. I think that’s what put the idea into Melissa’s head that she could walk. Two nights into the therapy we were at home and she just said “I’m going to walk” and she did, right across the living room floor. She was ready but she didn’t have the confidence.

Once she was on her feet it made everything so much easier, dressing, going to the loo, and now she can join in with different activities. She always wanted to go to a dance class, once she was on her feet she just pitched in with everybody else and then she started to go to gymnastics and different things like that.

Primary school

Melissa wasn’t continent or walking at four so she did a year in a special primary and started mainstream school a year later.

She has a specialist OT and a physio and they go into school and support the PSA and teachers to keep her on the straight and narrow and provide her with the equipment she needs.

Melissa is a sociable kid and enjoys school. Sometimes she gets left out. She’ll have friends here after school but not always get invited to other people’s houses. The parents who do have her round tend to work in the care sector – they get it. Some parents are scared, they don’t know what to make of Melissa, they worry about not being able to understand her, as it affects her speech. That’s quite difficult.

After school activities

Melissa does canoeing, gymnastics, drama and dancing. She doesn’t get wrapped in cotton wool at home. I don’t think she is ever that keen on structured therapy. It’s a battle to get her to do half an hour of physio, but she’ll do two hours of gymnastics on a Saturday and hates to miss that.

Search

Quick links

  • Ways to give
  • Our mission and values
  • All about cerebral palsy
  • Therapy for adults
  • Therapy for children
  • Campaigning

Copyright © 2025 · Enterprise Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Cerebral Palsy Scotland logo

Cerebral Palsy Scotland
Bradbury House
10 High Craighall Road
Glasgow, G4 9UD

t: 0141 352 5000
Phone Number for Cerebral Palsy Scotland
Fax Number for Cerebral Palsy Scotland
info@cpscot.org.uk
Email for Cerebral Palsy Scotland
cerebralpalsyscotland.org.uk
Website for Cerebral Palsy Scotland

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
OSCR logo
Nationa Lottery Community Fund logo
Manage Cookie Consent
We use cookies to optimise our website and our service.
Functional cookies Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}