The truth is, some things are impossible. Sometimes the only thing to do is give up.

Now, I don’t want you to get discouraged or think I’m advocating wanton apathy. I’m talking about the importance of giving up.

That sounds crazy, right? We’ve always been told that only ‘quitters’ give up.  Like it’s some crime, some sin against humanity itself. How dare we give up. How dare we turn away from an unfinished task and let someone else take over.

Picture Something You Cannot Do

I want you to think about that for a moment. Picture something that you cannot do. I mean, no matter how hard you try. Let’s say, picking up an elephant. You can’t pick up an elephant, right? You can throw yourself into the task for as long as you want, work yourself to exhaustion until you are utterly spent, but you are not going to budge that elephant.

What is the harm, in our scenario, of letting someone else take over? Your buddy over there has a giant crane with a conveniently elephant-sized sling attached. He’s even got the key in the ignition. All he needs is a nod from you and he’ll fire that sucker up. You can even help him get the sling under the elephant’s belly. So what, exactly, is wrong with that?

The answer, of course, is that nothing’s wrong with it. We all run up against things that are impossible for us (at least alone). We all need help sometimes; other times we just have to walk away and accept that our energies are better spent elsewhere. Giving up is not failure; it is an acknowledgment that there are better uses for our time and resources.

It’s right there in the words after all. Have you ever thought about that verb, ‘to give up’? Taken literally it does not mean ‘failure’. It does not mean ‘not good enough’. It means ‘to pass to another’, or maybe ‘to lift from oneself’. Merriam-Webster offers these synonyms: ‘deliver’; ‘hand over’; ‘lay down’. You don’t just give up tasks; you can also give up burdens, vices, and unhealthy habits.

In short, we all have to learn how to judge when to give up and when to press on. It becomes the difference between ‘hey, I can’t do A, but you can, so you take over that and I’ll tackle B’ and ‘you know what? A is pretty hard but I’m sure I can do it!’. Both views are equally valid, and if the lesson was never learned the world would be full of frustrated, exhausted people and half-finished tasks.

A Lesson That Is Universally Useful

It’s not just a hemi-thing; this is a lesson that is universally useful. However I’d venture to say that we tend to come into it a little earlier; we’re ahead of the curve. We learn fairly early on that there are some things we can’t do and others which are only possible with a helping hand. I will never spin a basketball on my left fingers, for example; I can’t even hold my fingers still as I type this with my right. Is this process frustrating? Sure it is. We want to do what everyone else can and it’s hard, very hard, to accept that sometimes we can’t.

However, as time goes on the focus shifts. We learn to judge what we can’t do and throw ourselves all the more into what we can. The times when we have to give up grow less frequent; our teeth-gritting, bullheaded, do-or-die successes occur more often and are more satisfying because we learn our own limits and know when we can pour every bit of energy we have into one thing and come out flushed and grinning on the other side.

My favorite pair of earrings I made myself, out of tiny gears and chains. They took six hours to complete – three on each earring – and I lost control of my hand for a week afterward. Was it worth it? You bet it was.

There are many elephants for us in life; for everyone but, yes, a few more for us Hemi-Kids and people like us. We, like everyone else, learn the importance of giving up. We learn to spot those elephants coming and call in reinforcements before we burn ourselves out trying to lift them. Better yet we learn to tell when we can lift the elephant. We learn when and how to use our resources to their best effect.

They Will Find Success

Really what I want you, Parents, to take away from this is that giving up is not the same thing as failing. It is a wise and prudent choice, one that conserves energy for more important things. As you go forward I hope you will not be discouraged by your child’s struggles. He will give up on tasks. He will even give up on entire days. But on life, the grand and glorious arena of the world, there he will never give up. There he will throw himself into his living and there he will find success. There lie his many, many victories.

Article written by CHASA blogger, Elizabeth Tarney, a student at North Carolina State University majoring in Zoology. Elizabeth was diagnosed with hemiparesis due to a stroke in utero at about four months of age, but hasn’t let that stop her from doing… anything, really. She is a fencer, hiker, rock climber, and white-water rafter. At NC State Elizabeth is an activist for disability awareness and the president of a disability advocacy club. She plans to combine that passion with her love of animals to someday train service animals for children with special needs.

Copyright © 2013 Children’s Hemiplegia and Stroke Association
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The Children’s Hemiplegia and Stroke Association (CHASA) is gathering sample IEPs and other education plans from birth through college from parents of children with disabilities and we will share these on the CHASA website. We’d like to see IEPs for a child with any type of differences and are not limiting this to the groups we have traditionally served. Parents and school staff often find the development of a child’s IEP to be rather challenging. It is our hope that by sharing sample IEPs, we will continue with the CHASA mission of improving the lives of children with hemiplegia or pediatric stroke.

Send Your IEP to CHASA

Contact CHASA and we’ll send you instructions on how to send your child’s IEP to us. We ask that you remove names, signatures, locations, and the school name from the IEP before you send the file to us. Sending as a pdf file is the preferred method. Please tell us the grade level of your child and the date (year) of the IEP. If you’d like to share your child’s diagnosis or any other information, please feel free to add this in your email.

More about Individualized Education Plans

Children with hemiplegia may or may not have challenges at school. For children who do have challenges, an Individualized Education Plan, mandated by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, is often put into place to guide teachers and other school staff. An Individualized Education Program is a written statement of the educational program designed to meet the child’s individual needs. The IEP generally has two goals – to set reasonable learning goals for the child, and to state the services that the school district will provide for the child. Learn more about hemiplegia and school issues >

Strong as Steel Adaptive Sports – Western Pennsylvania

Darla Clayton’s son, Trent, has survived many hemorrhagic strokes in his young life and has right hemiplegic cerebral palsy and epilepsy.  He has always been a natural runner; running has seemed to come more easily to him than walking!  When Trent tried other sports, soccer, baseball, etc., he excelled at the running parts but wasn’t a huge fan of the other sporting activities.  In the Spring of 2011, Darla and her husband decided to look into a running program for Trent.

There was no adaptive track and field program in their area, but Trent wanted to run. Trent’s family had some great support from other families they met through the Children’s Hemiplegia and Stroke Association (CHASA).  They were given great information about how to qualify and register for the National Junior Disability Championships from CHASA families.  Trent qualified for NJDC and attending NJDC was a wonderful experience for him and their entire family!  He came home feeling fantastic about himself and also asking excellent questions like “why don’t we have a team in Pittsburgh” and “I bet there are other kids in Pittsburgh who would love to come to NJDC next year”.  So the Clayton family began to talk about starting a team in Pittsburgh to share the inspiration they felt at NJDC with other local families! That’s how Strong as Steel Adaptive Sports was born.

The mission of Strong as Steel Adaptive Sports is to provide sport specific training and opportunities in the Western PA area for children ages 5 to 21 with physical disabilities (ambulatory, wheelchair or visually impaired athletes) and to encourage them to attend local, regional and national competitions. They focus on track and field but also provide opportunities for competition in other sports including archery, table tennis, weight lifting, and swimming.  Their goal is to encourage children to gain independence despite any challenges they may face. While children gain physical strength and athletic skills, they will also be gaining self-esteem and learning perseverance.

Strong as Steel athletes will participate in meets sanctioned by Wheelchair and Ambulatory Sports USA.  Athletes are classified at meets based on the type of disability they have and the disability severity, using a classification system very similar to the one used by the Paralympics.  For instance, there are 8 classifications for cerebral palsy to allow for the variability that exists within the diagnosis (quadriplegia, hemiplegia, diplegia, ambulatory and wheelchair athletes). The classification system allows kids to compete on a more even playing field.  Trent is classified as a T37 for Track events and an F37 for field events.  To learn more about Wheelchair and Ambulatory Sports USA, and the classification process, you can check out their website.

Check out the Strong as Steel Adaptive Sports website! If you know any athletes who would be appropriate for their program, please share this information with them.

CHASA salutes the Clayton family and Strong as Steel Adaptive Sports volunteers for their awesome and dedicated efforts to encourage children to gain physical strength and athletic skills despite any challenges they may face.

That story highlights for me one of the differences in the way I (and, if I may be permitted to generalize, at least some other Hemi-Kids as well) see myself versus the way the world sees us. I know I’m preaching to the choir here, as many of you are parents of these kids and you’ve seen first-hand how adept we can be at taking on a physically challenging world, but bear with me and I’ll see if I can make it worth your while.

The key here is adaptation versus innovation. Adaptations are easier to explain so I’ll get into that first. An adaptation is something that I’ve seen someone else do, that I want or need to do, that I try (and try, and bullheadedly try) until I find a modified way to accomplish it. Big ones for me were tying my shoes (which I learned in second grade and still do clumsily), using a pair of scissors (still can’t cut straight), and zipping a zipper on a jacket (all of my jackets now either button or just slip over my head). I don’t want to imply there are no adaptations I do well – I can type one-handed faster than most people can type with two – my point is that adaptations are things I learned from other people, the way they do them or as close to it as I can get.

Innovations, on the other hand, are the fun ones. They’re things that I do, that I taught myself, that are nothing like the ‘typical’ way to do it and come easily to me. They don’t require sustained effort, they don’t require a lot of thought, and they’re just like any other simple day-to-day task. My parents gasp and flinch when I carry four glasses to the table in my right hand but to me it’s natural and I know I’m not going to drop them. I still get a little confused when I crack an egg one-handed and people think it’s this great feat. That’s the thing about innovations; we figure out new ways to perform tasks without even knowing we’re doing it.

Where adaptation is hard, innovation is as natural as breathing. Adaptation takes effort; innovation is nearly unconscious. I wish I could give you more examples but I’m not entirely sure where my innovations lie, as I don’t recognize them until other people point them out. I tend to think everyone does it that way until I’m told they don’t. I’m absolutely certain your child has innovations as well; you might even know what they are.

I guess what I’m trying to get at here is that I want you to have hope. Your child faces a very difficult journey, that’s undeniable, but it’s not always as hard for us as it seems. We’re not just adapting to an often-unfriendly world, we’re innovating creative solutions for problems without even realizing it. We will carry that creativity and innate instinct to look at problems from new angles, to think outside the box for solutions that most people would never find, into our schools and our careers. We will lead the field in innovative thinking because we are born innovators.

For every crashed bicycle, snarled shoelace, and stuck zipper, there will be a perfectly cracked egg, a deftly donned sock, a carefully-balanced stack of plates. When you look at your child doing something you never taught him and ask about it, he will not be thinking about effort or frustration or retries. He will give you the same answer he will one day give his teachers, and later his coworkers or his boss:

“What? Doesn’t everyone do it this way?”

Article written by CHASA blogger, Elizabeth Tarney, a student at North Carolina State University majoring in Zoology. Elizabeth was diagnosed with hemiparesis due to a stroke in utero at about four months of age, but hasn’t let that stop her from doing… anything, really. She is a fencer, hiker, rock climber, and white-water rafter. At NC State Elizabeth is an activist for disability awareness and the president of a disability advocacy club. She plans to combine that passion with her love of animals to someday train service animals for children with special needs.

The Traveling Awareness Bears, Inc.

When Elijah Rutherford was first diagnosed as having survived a stroke in utero, he was 20 months old. It was 2005 and his mother, Jennifer, was at a loss of who to turn to. After searching on the internet, she came across the Children’s Hemiplegia and Stroke Association (CHASA) and quickly signed up for their email support list. Through CHASA, Jennifer met three women who and they all bonded quickly with each other. The four of them leaned on each other through all their hard times and cheered each other on through all the good. Those three women kept Jennifer strong through the early years of Elijah’s journey.

When Elijah turned 4, he began asking questions about what was wrong with him. Jennifer tried so hard to explain what a stroke was to him, but at the age of 4, it was difficult for him to understand. He couldn’t see why they couldn’t just put a band aid on his booboo and make it go away. Jennifer began pointing out awareness ribbons to him and telling him how purple was his color. He started pointing them out to his mother everywhere they went. Soon he was asking why they were always pink and yellow. He never once saw a purple ribbon.

At age 5 he started telling everyone he met, no matter where they were, “Did you know kids and babies have strokes? I had a stroke in utero, did you know you could have a stroke in utero?”. This was always followed by what Jennifer began referring to as ‘the look’. Eyes bulging, mouth dropped open, disbelief written all over their faces. Elijah became quite the educator. It bothered him more and more about the lack of purple ribbons. His favorite shirts to wear were always pediatric stroke awareness shirts. Pediatric Stroke Awareness Day became his favorite day of the year. It was the same excitement as waking up on his birthday. He began telling people they NEED to wear purple to support pediatric stroke. He convinced a local baker that he and his parents frequented after his therapy sessions, that he had to bake purple awareness ribbon cookies when he spotted pink ones in the window. The following week, the baker had 6 purple cookies waiting for Elijah.

At the age of 7, he decided the world needed to know there was more awareness to raise than just cancer. He decided to send his teddy bear around the world to visit kids just like him, so they could see that there were other kids, just like them. His bear was named Pat Bearowitz, he was dressed in an “I survived a stroke” T-Shirt, complete with a purple ribbon. Elijah’s orthotist loved the idea so much, he donated a DAFO (foot orthotic) for Pat. Pat was given a story based on Elijah’s and his mother posted it on her Pediatric Stroke Awareness Facebook page. Within days, he had 30 requests for a visit from Pat. He began traveling in November of 2010 and to date had received over 100 requests. His sister Patricia has over 30 Internationally. Since Pat and Patricia, we have added Patrick and Patrice to help them out.

The Traveling Awareness Bears now has over 50 medical conditions with over 150 teddy bears traveling the world. The bears have medical equipment unique to their specific needs and travel with journals and passports so kids can read all about their previous adventures, and see that they are not alone with their challenges. To request a visit, head over to www.travelingawarenessbears.org because there is nothing like feeling that there is someone just like you!

CHASA salutes Elijah, his mom Jennifer, and the Traveling Awareness Bears board and volunteers for their awesome and dedicated efforts to raising Pediatric Stroke Awareness around the world.

May 1
Like CHASA on Facebook.

May 2
Write your child’s story and share it on a Firstgiving page. The world needs to know our stories. (You don’t have to fundraise on Firstgiving. You can simply share your story if you’d like.)

May 3
Make this your cover picture on facebook. Photo created by Chandra Whitfield.

May 4
Streak your hair purple. Invite your friends to a girl’s night out at a local salon and give everyone a purple streak.

May 5
Tweet daily that Kids Have Strokes, Too and provide a link to http://www.CHASA.org for more information

May 6
Email the CHASA Pediatric Stroke Awareness Fact Sheet or your employer, library, or place of worship and ask them to add pediatric stroke facts or your child’s story to their newsletter.

May 7
Share a link to the 2013 Pediatric Stroke and Hemiplegia Awareness Montage

May 8
Paint your nails purple with a ribbon design or get a Pediatric Stroke Awareness tattoo.

May 9
No time for awareness? One minute ideas here. Order purple M&Ms for Pediatric Stroke Awareness and hand out at school or work. Add a purple ribbon design to the M&M.

May 10
Going out tonight? Wear purple in honor of Pediatric Stroke Awareness.

May 11
Rest. Parents and caregivers of pediatric stroke survivors are often under a large amount of stress. Find some time today to do something you enjoy.

May 12
Volunteer for CHASA. Did you know that every single member of the CHASA board is the mother of a child or young adult who has a diagnosis of hemiplegia or pediatric stroke? Join our team!

May 13
Record a video with your story or your child’s story and post online. The world needs to know our stories.

May 14
Make a purple cake or cupcakes. Add a ribbon on top.

May 15
Ask a local restaurant to host a Pediatric Stroke Awareness Event and Fundraiser and invite your friends, family, and coworkers

May 16
Ribbons around trees. Ask your local park or businesses if you can tie purple ribbons to trees and hang a sign that says, Kids Have Strokes, Too!

May 17
Write Pediatric Stroke Facts on the sidewalk with chalk.

May 18
Plant some purple flowers in your yard or in a pot on your desk at work. Add a sign on a stick that says “Kids Have Strokes, Too!”

May 19
Have a “Paint the Office Purple Day” and ask your employer and co-workers to wear purple in honor of our little stroke survivors.

May 20
Host a party at a local art studio and paint awareness ribbons on a canvas. Display the paintings in your community. Print CHASA Pediatric Stroke Awareness Fact Sheets and stack next to the paintings.

May 21
Host a party at home. Ask friends and family to donate to CHASA.

May 22
Write “May is Pediatric Stroke Awareness Month.  CHASA.org” on your car’s window.

May 23
Thankful day. Thank the therapists, doctors, family and friends who help you on this journey.

May 24
Change your email and text messaging signature to “May is Pediatric Stroke Awareness Month” or “Kids Have Strokes, Babies, Have Strokes, Even Unborn Babies Have Strokes.”

May 25
Paint your front door purple!

May 26
Print Pediatric Stroke Awareness stickers or labels and stick them everywhere.

May 27
Photo shoot. Professional or just done by you. Invite your child’s friends; have them wear pediatric stroke shirts; and make a sign as a prop.

May 28
Use purple ribbon as hair ties for your hair or your daughter’s hair.

May 29
Ask your child’s school or  local high school’s sports teams to wear purple in honor of our little stroke survivors. They may even want to host a virtual walk by setting up a Team page on Firstgiving and raising funds to help CHASA help the kids.

May 30
Make purple ribbons and ask your favorite restaurant’s servers and hosts to wear them.

May 31
Plan to make a Pediatric Stroke Awareness Float or banner to use in your city’s 4th of July parade!

Constraint Induced Movement Therapy Camps and Programs – Western United States

Camp Bennett – San Francisco, CA – founded by Audrey Vernick, mom of a child with hemiplegic cerebral palsy

Constraint Induced Movement Therapy Camps and Programs – Central United States

Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago Constraint Induced Movement Therapy Camp

St. Louis Children’s Hospital Therapy Services – Modified Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy- summer intensive programs, Chesterfield, Missouri

Constraint Induced Movement Therapy Camps and Programs – Southeastern United States

Children’s of Alabama Pediatric Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy Outpatient Program

North Carolina Children’s Hospital Modified Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy Camp – ages 3 to 10 years;  primarily funded by charitable contributions and grants

Powerhouse Therapy- Camp Open Hands Modified Constraint Induced Therapy Camp located in Roswell, Georgia

Constraint Induced Movement Therapy Camps and Programs – Northeastern United States

Constraint Induced Therapy and HABIT Camps - Center for Cerebral Palsy Research at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York – no fee

Constraint Induced and Bimanual Therapy Kennedy Krieger Institute – Baltimore, Maryland

St. Charles Rehabilitation 3 Week CIMT camp, New York – nominal fee to the family

Hasbro Children’s Hospital Constraint Therapy Program

Camp Helping Hands at Intensive Therapeutics – New Jersey

This list of camps is provided by CHASA as a means of assisting parents in locating a CIMT program.  CHASA has not researched specific details about these camps. A listing on this page does not imply endorsement by CHASA.

Dr. Karyl Barron reports, “We have recently discovered a gene that is mutated in our cohort of patients and are looking for more patients that fit this description. We have a potential therapy that we will be starting soon, based on the known genetic defect.  While this is a genetic disease, it is autosomal recessive – meaning the child receives one mutated gene from each parent.  People who have only one mutation are asymptomatic – so no family history of childhood strokes is the frequent story we hear. Evaluation and treatment at the National Institutes Health is of no cost to the patient.  There is a Children’s Inn on campus where patients and their families can stay.”

Please contact Karyl Barron, MD if you think that your child fits this description. Contact information is below. NIH letter on gene mutation in children with early stroke.

Karyl Barron, MD, Deputy Director, Division of Intramural Research,
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
National Institutes of Health, DHHS
Building 33, Room 2N09D
33 North Drive
Bethesda, Maryland 20892
Phone: 301-402-2208
FAX: 301-402-0166
Email: Kbarron@nih.gov

CHASA assists researchers in gathering information that may contribute to scientific and medical knowledge. CHASA does not endorse these studies, but simply provide this information as a courtesy to parents and researchers. Please contact your child’s physician regarding your child’s medical situation.

The original 2002 Pediatric Stroke Awareness Day soon grew to an entire month of pediatric stroke awareness activities. Read a press release about our growing Pediatric Stroke Awareness movement. This grassroots effort continues today. It started with two moms and now reaches families around the world.

Learn how You Can Help.

Learn about Pediatric Stroke Awareness Month Proclamations.

Donate to CHASA and help us help little stroke survivors.

In May, families around the world are letting others know that Kids Have Strokes, Too. Some are asking local government to proclaim May as Pediatric Stroke Awareness Month. Others are hosting events to raise funds and awareness and our online community is setting up online Streak for Pediatric Stroke pages.  Meet a few of these families below…

The Mory Family is Streaking for Pediatric Stroke Awareness - When Mikey was a few months old we noticed he was only reaching for his toys with his left hand. His pediatrician joked that we should teach him to box or pitch since he’d be a lefty. Eventually we decided this was not normal and we had him tested with an MRI. Our sweet little baby survived a stroke in-utero which damaged the left side of his brain. Read more>

The Chudzik Family is Streaking for Pediatric Stroke Awareness - Cody was the best baby, and initially was hitting every age appropriate developmental milestone that there was.  Around 4 months though we started to notice that Cody preferred his left hand to his right.  We thought that since my husband was a lefty he would be too.  It was only when others who worked closely with Cody as well said something that we thought maybe this was not okay.  We chatted with my parents who were both pediatricians and they expressed their concerns about this as well. Read more>

The White Family is Streaking for Pediatric Stroke Awareness- In honor of my five year old stroke survivor I am streaking to raise money for CHASA, an organization that has been so important to my family. This year’s streak is a photo challenge I created to show you each day the challenges and triumphs of my favorite five year old. Read more>

Learn how you can Streak for Pediatric Stroke Awareness. Set up your page today and start streaking on May 1, 2013!

April 13, 2013  Ride 4 Riley
Hosted by the Volkel Cycling Team in honor of pediatric stroke survivor Riley
Valkenburg, Netherlands

May 1, 2013 – May 31, 2013 Streak for Pediatric Stroke
Hosted by Children’s Hemiplegia and Stroke Association (CHASA)
Virtual Event

May 4, 2103  Stride On For Pediatric Stroke Awareness
Hosted by Matt & Shiloh Little in honor of their little pediatric stroke survivor, Jace
Olathe, Kansas

May 4, 2013 Walk for Pediatric Stroke Awareness
Hosted by Annette Brennan
Colchester, Connecticut

May 4, 2013 2nd Annual Strikes for Pediatric Stroke
Hosted by Abbe and Jeffrey Harpp, in honor of their son Cash and other Pediatric Stroke Survivors
New Haven, Indiana

May 11, 2013 Virginia Strikes for Pediatric Stroke
Hosted by Kathy White and Barbara Bradley
Midlothian, VA

May 18, 2013  Rhode Island’s 5th Annual Childhood Stroke Walk
Hosted by Jill, Jeffrey, and Gregory Ball
Recipient of CHASA Think Big Grant
Jamestown, Rhode Island

September 1, 2013  Virginia Beach Rock ‘n Roll Half Marathon
Pamela Brooke is running in honor of her son and perinatal stroke survivor Tyler
Virginia Beach, VA

In the Fall… an event in upstate New York – watch for details

Below you’ll find one mom’s solution to what to wear in cold weather when your child is sporting a full arm cast. Find as many mock layered t shirts as you can on clearance or at thrift stores, then cut off the “mock” long sleeve on the cast side.

Thanks for the creative idea, Sarah!

]]> http://www.chasa.org/how-to-wear-a-shirt-and-an-arm-cast-in-cold-weather/feed/ 0 http://www.chasa.org/adding-a-velcro-fastener-to-pants/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=adding-a-velcro-fastener-to-pants http://www.chasa.org/adding-a-velcro-fastener-to-pants/#comments Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:40:08 +0000 CHASA http://www.chasa.org/?p=6424 Children and adults with hemiplegia or hemiplegic cerebral palsy may have difficulty fastening pants with one hand. Below you’ll find an easy method of replacing the button with velcro. The final photo, which we do not have, would show the button sewn on the outside of the jeans, on top of the original button hole.

Remove button and sew to outside of pants. Position it where the button would show if pants were buttoned. If jeans have a snap, you may leave snaps in place. Purchase and sew on commercial grade Velcro.

You can also sew a button to the outside to cover up the button hole.

More Adaptive Clothing Ideas for Children with Hemiplegia or Hemiplegic Cerebral Palsy

The photo shows a handle that has been added to a zipper pull.

This photo shows a longer ribbon that has been added to a zipper pull.

More Adaptive Clothing Ideas for Children with Hemiplegia or Hemiplegic Cerebral Palsy

Where Can I Find Elastic Waist Jeans?

Search for elastic waist or pull on jeans.

• Target
• Hanna Anderson
• Crazy 8
• Osh Kosh
• C. W. D. Kids
• Gymboree
• Land’s End
• TheSeniorShop.com – adult sizes
• Walmart

Ready for Buttons?

• Use a seam ripper to make the button hole a little larger
• Use a “button assist‘”

Forget the Buttons!

• Add a velcro fastener. Remove the button. Stitch up the button hole. Attach a snap or velcro.
• Altering jeans for individuals with hemiplegia- Add your own elastic to traditional jeans
• Buy good quality leggings or jeggings

More Adaptive Clothing Ideas for Children with Hemiplegia or Hemiplegic Cerebral Palsy