a story about Ngan

This is Ngan,
she is the most determined, beautiful little person i have worked with! She is 9 years old and has cerebral palsy (crouch gait, not sure if it would have developed anyway, or is because the did archeles lengthening surgery - she has so much dorsiflexion range it is ridiculous! ironically Has contractures preventing plantarflexion as a result of the casting post surgery!).
We are working on getting her walking, made much harder by the impossibility of trialling walking frames etc (have to just get them made by the metal works whe we decide what would be best), and the impossibility of getting any sort of AFO to support her ankles!

At the moment we use knee brace that the family have and use a basic 2 wheeled walker. lots of practising those ABductors and extensors to get her standing up as straight as possible. Ngan is incredible, every time we walk with her, she refuses the rests and keeps on going for one more lap. When we do side-stepping at the rails she keeps going until she pretty much collapses, then will be starting to pull herself up almost straight away! I have to enforce breaks!!

Having a rest break with her knee braces on ready for more walking! We were doing laps of the room behind us (and about a metre more in front of us), she would do 3 or 4 laps each time before having a break!

Practicing using both hands together. Ngan's left hand is quite difficult for her to use (actually, both arms and legs are affected, but the left side is worse!) so we are practicing using that left side as much as possible. This means I always make her use her left to reach into the bucket for more pieces of the toys or more beads.... she is a cheeky monkey and if if i am distracted at all will use her right hands.... then grin at me until I notice!

More 2 handed play, I look weirdly evil in this photo..... but Ngan has such a beautiful smile!!!

Standing to put balls through the basketball hoop, or do side-stepping.... Sometimes Ngan plays jokes like throwing the ball up through the hoop instead of down, or cheating and putting the balls straight into the bucket underneath instead of stretching up - then she laughs so hard she almost falls over!

I also must apologise to her, I do not have the ability on my computer to put the little haat above the "a" in her name... on the first day I met Ngan I was testing all her skills, and she aced drawing basic shapes, so i wrote N g a n on the paper, she immediately added the little hat over the a and gave me a hilarious little pouty face! It was soon after this, and being impressed by her copying of patterns with the beads that I realised not only can she communicate and write (albeit with some difficulty due to the stiffness and dystonia in her arms)she is actually bilingual and has some English! (colours, numbers, greetings, probably more than I even know about!).
I have to check on Monday, but I think this all might be considering that she actually doesn't go to school.... The father of a 5 year old we see told me the school wouldn't accept his child due to her disability, like Ngan she is purely physically disabled and sharp as a tack!

Ngan also comes in to see us every day that she can, If we are seeing another little person she and her mum will happily sit downstairs doing fine motor activities by themselves, just happy to use the resources available at the clinic. I assume this means she mustn't be attending regular school.