Hewlitt Packard

Name: Hewlitt Packard

Age/Grade: 13 years 8 months; entering 7th grade

Parents: Jack and Jane Packard

Condition: hemiplegic, spastic and athetoid cerebral palsy (CP)

Background: Hewlitt is the youngest of three daughters born to Jack and Jane Packard. Her older sisters are 22 and 30, respectively, and both are married and live in other states. Hewlitt's CP affects her left side extensively; she has no control of her left arm and leg, and must use a wheel chair at all times (except when out of the chair for therapeutic or self-care reasons). The limbs on her left side are often contracted and physical therapy (PT) continues to be a related service necessary for Hewlitt.

Although Hewlitt's right side is much less affected than her left, both her right leg and arm are weak and cannot bear full weight for long periods of time. She can, however, control her right hand and arm, and due to recent surgery Hewlitt exhibits increasing and improving finger dexterity. Hewlitt's speech centers are seriously affected by the CP; although she can and does make sounds, she cannot control the muscles of her mouth, throat, and tongue enough to articulate clearly. Her neurologist offers no hope that the control of these muscles can be improved. Therefore, three years ago, Hewlitt began to use a speech synthesizer attached to her wheelchair. She became quite skilled with the synthesizer and her academic performance increased remarkably.

Hewlitt has been diagnosed with a learning disability in math; she functions at and above grade level in reading and language arts, social studies, and science. Most of Hewlitt's classwork is completed on a word processor and with the speech synthesizer.

Comments and Insights

Parents: Hewlitt is entering puberty and is becoming quite concerned about her social life. She wishes there were a way for her to communicate other than electronically. She has begun to explore the possibility of a rudimentary sign language and even participated i the evening sign language class at church. She really did quite well with her one hand. We wonder if the continuing speech therapy she receives could be refocused to sign language instruction. After all, the school also offers American Sign Language (ASL) as a modern language, and Hewlitt could -- with assistance because of her use of only one arm -- then freely participate in natural language with her peers.

Special Education Teacher: Hewlitt participated in a small math group; she completed her work, but as the year progressed, she became increasingly reluctant to use her speech synthesizer. This was true especially when communicating with the other children. Where she used to treat the synthesizer as a marvelous miracle; now Hewlitt seems to regard it as an albatross. She continues to improve in math, but I'm growing concerned about her socialization skills and reluctance to use the synthesizer.

Regular Education Teacher (social studies): Hewlitt's word-processed work is really quite outstanding; she is deeply interested in history and all cultures. She seems to be fascinated by the westward expansion, especially the growth of the cattle and horse ranches. She wrote a rather fanciful account of the settlement and development of the wild horse lands in Wyoming. I only wish Hewlitt were more willing to share her insights aloud in class; she limits the use of the synthesizer to the briefest comments possible. It is also beginning to look like she is physically sinking further and further into her chair.

Physical Therapist: We continue to work to strengthen Hewlitt's right side and must also focus on trunk control. She needs some additional activities that would require her to expand her range of motion and to exercise her leg, arm, and hand. With the hemiplegic CP, it is hard to envision non-clinical activities that would truly fit the bill. I've heard of therapeutic horseback riding in some areas and if it were available in this area, would certainly recommend it as a PT for Hewlitt. Perhaps such involvement would give her a social outlet, too.

Hewlitt: [most of this response was on the word processor; the "talker" actually has a rather nice young female voice. . . but as you can see, Hewlitt is not impressed] I hate my "talker" -- you can't share a secret, you can't whisper, you can't really laugh. . . not like a teenager should. I want to have another way to talk. My dad says I'm being silly, but Dad was never a teen-aged girl. He also tells me I'm slumping more, and I guess he's right, but the PT exercises are so boring. I wish I lived out west with the Indians. . . I know I wouldn't have the wheel chair or the computer, but then we could just use sign language and they could put me on a horse instead of a wheelchair! Do you think you could arrange that?