Latest / Spotlight English: Advanced / I Am not Drunk (Advanced Program)
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Roger Bassick.
- 0:06Speaker 2: And I'm Marina Sante. Spotslight uses a special English method
- 0:12Speaker 2: of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no
- 0:16Speaker 2: matter where in the world they live.
- 0:27Speaker 1: He sinks into a wheelchair. His fingers are bent and strange.
- 0:33Speaker 1: No one can understand his speech. It sounds like he
- 0:36Speaker 1: is mumbling. He needs help wiping his face. His hands
- 0:42Speaker 1: and arms do not work properly. He looks frustrated and confused.
- 0:48Speaker 1: He seems helpless. Is he stupid? Is he mentally challenged? No,
- 0:54Speaker 1: he is not. He is intelligent. He makes good decisions.
- 1:00Speaker 1: He just has cerebral palsy.
- 1:04Speaker 2: Today's Spotslight is on cerebral palsy, or CP. We examine
- 1:10Speaker 2: what is involved in this condition. We explore incorrect views
- 1:15Speaker 2: about the mental abilities of people with CP. We discuss
- 1:20Speaker 2: false judgments about those with the disorder. We learn about
- 1:25Speaker 2: several people living amazing lives with CP.
- 1:33Speaker 1: Certain areas of the human brain control muscle movement. A
- 1:37Speaker 1: person may develop cerebral palsy when these areas do not
- 1:40Speaker 1: grow properly. Brain damage also causes cerebral palsy. These problems
- 1:47Speaker 1: usually happen during the child's development in the womb, or
- 1:50Speaker 1: during the process of childbirth. Sometimes it happens during the
- 1:54Speaker 1: first few years of a child's life. The brain damage
- 1:58Speaker 1: causes a child to learn something things more slowly. It
- 2:02Speaker 1: is harder for him to learn to roll over, crawl,
- 2:05Speaker 1: or walk. Cerebral Palsy might cause a child to use
- 2:09Speaker 1: one side of his body more than the other. He
- 2:12Speaker 1: may not be able to control his movements. His arms
- 2:16Speaker 1: could be softer or stiffer than normal.
- 2:19Speaker 2: There is no cure for cerebral palsy. Certain operations and
- 2:23Speaker 2: medicine can sometimes help, but nothing completely heals it. Forty
- 2:29Speaker 2: to fifty percent of people with CP must use a wheelchair.
- 2:35Speaker 2: Some of these people can walk, but not for long distances.
- 2:39Speaker 2: One out of three people with CP cannot walk at all.
- 2:46Speaker 1: People with CP have different needs. Some people need help
- 2:51Speaker 1: twenty four hours a day. They may need help even
- 2:54Speaker 1: at night. Their physical restrictions do not allow them to
- 2:58Speaker 1: care for themselves. Others must hire caregivers to help them
- 3:02Speaker 1: for certain hours a day. Some need much less help,
- 3:06Speaker 1: but help often costs a lot. The average lifetime cost
- 3:11Speaker 1: of care for someone with cerebral palsy is between one
- 3:14Speaker 1: and five million US dollars. In some countries, people with
- 3:19Speaker 1: CP qualify for government help, but often they must raise
- 3:23Speaker 1: extra money or they ask their families for help.
- 3:29Speaker 2: Forty percent of people with cerebral palsy have some sort
- 3:33Speaker 2: of mental problem. This problem could be troubled talking. It
- 3:38Speaker 2: may be a short attention span. Sometimes it is anxiety
- 3:43Speaker 2: or anger. It also may be a learning difficulty.
- 3:48Speaker 1: These difficulties do not mean that a person with CP
- 3:51Speaker 1: is not smart. It just means that she needs help
- 3:54Speaker 1: and patience. It is important for caregivers or family members
- 3:58Speaker 1: who help people with CP not to try to think
- 4:01Speaker 1: for them. People with CP want their needs met. They
- 4:06Speaker 1: want their desires to be heard. They do not want
- 4:09Speaker 1: to be told what to do. They do not need
- 4:12Speaker 1: someone to control their lives. They just need help because
- 4:16Speaker 1: their bodies do not work under their complete control.
- 4:21Speaker 2: For Richard Heron of Fort Worth, Texas, the worst part
- 4:25Speaker 2: of having cerebral palsy is feeling helpless. Richard was born
- 4:31Speaker 2: with cerebral palsy. Throughout his life, many people mistakenly thought
- 4:36Speaker 2: that he could not think for himself. His parents even
- 4:41Speaker 2: puts him in a mental hospital when he was young.
- 4:45Speaker 2: They thought he was mentally challenged.
- 4:50Speaker 1: As an adult, Richard has caregivers work for him. His
- 4:54Speaker 1: caregivers operate a lift attached to a ceiling that pulls
- 4:57Speaker 1: them out of bed. The lift picks them up and
- 5:00Speaker 1: places him in a wheelchair. His caregivers help him get dressed,
- 5:04Speaker 1: They help him make phone calls and write emails. They
- 5:07Speaker 1: drive him to meetings. But the one thing they can
- 5:10Speaker 1: never do is speak for Richard. He is the boss.
- 5:15Speaker 1: When he speaks with someone else, the caregiver can only
- 5:19Speaker 1: help make his speech clear. Richard's speech is harder to
- 5:23Speaker 1: understand because of his CP. He even hangs a sign
- 5:27Speaker 1: on his wheelchair that reads, I am not drunk. Listeners
- 5:32Speaker 1: must be patient when he speaks.
- 5:37Speaker 2: Richard was once at a dentist's office to care for
- 5:40Speaker 2: his teeth. It was taking a long time for the
- 5:43Speaker 2: woman making appointments to understand Richard. His caregiver was not patient.
- 5:50Speaker 2: The caregiver finally told the caregiver finally told her to
- 5:55Speaker 2: make the appointments for next Thursday. This is not what
- 5:59Speaker 2: Richard's said or wanted. He was very upset. Together they
- 6:05Speaker 2: left the dentist's office.
- 6:08Speaker 1: Richard yelled at his caregiver in front of everyone. Am
- 6:11Speaker 1: I stupid? Richard screamed, of course you are not.
- 6:16Speaker 2: His caregiver said, I was just trying to speed things up.
- 6:21Speaker 1: Richard stared at his caregiver for a moment. He wanted
- 6:24Speaker 1: to make sure he was listening. Then Richard said, I
- 6:29Speaker 1: decide when to speed up, I decide when to slow down.
- 6:35Speaker 1: I am the boss.
- 6:39Speaker 2: Richard has fired several caregivers for this type of mistake.
- 6:43Speaker 2: He takes it very seriously. His cerebral palsy limits many
- 6:48Speaker 2: of his physical abilities. He needs help with daily tasks
- 6:52Speaker 2: that others do not. The one area which he controls
- 6:57Speaker 2: is thinking and making decisions. When someone tries to think
- 7:02Speaker 2: and speak for him, he does not tolerate it. He
- 7:06Speaker 2: feels overlooked and insignificant. He feels like everyone assumes he
- 7:11Speaker 2: is not smart.
- 7:16Speaker 1: Richard earned his bachelor's degree in college. Then he earned
- 7:20Speaker 1: his master's degree. He became a Christian minister, He got
- 7:25Speaker 1: married and started a family. He is very smart and capable.
- 7:30Speaker 1: He just needs people to be patient with his slower
- 7:32Speaker 1: speaking skills.
- 7:37Speaker 2: Afea Kabir and Nila was born with cerebral palsy in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
- 7:44Speaker 2: Schools would not accept her because of her CP. Several
- 7:48Speaker 2: schools rejected her. They thought that other students could get
- 7:53Speaker 2: cerebral palsy from her, as if CP was an infectious disease.
- 8:00Speaker 2: The school finally accepted her. She attended in her wheelchair.
- 8:05Speaker 2: She worked hard, but communication was difficult.
- 8:09Speaker 3: Nilla said, I attended the school regularly, but I cannot
- 8:14Speaker 3: write and stand. Many times at school people cannot understand me.
- 8:20Speaker 3: I have a woman who writes for me, but often
- 8:24Speaker 3: she does not understand I have to spell out the words.
- 8:29Speaker 1: When she was fourteen, Anila went to an international gathering
- 8:33Speaker 1: in Goa, India. The gathering was about disabilities. Two hundred
- 8:38Speaker 1: people from around the world attended. Aniela was the youngest
- 8:42Speaker 1: person there. Aniela impressed everyone with a ten minute speech.
- 8:47Speaker 1: In her speech, she.
- 8:49Speaker 3: Said, it is painful when I go to the market
- 8:53Speaker 3: and people stare I am not included in schools. I
- 8:57Speaker 3: have seen my mother cry so many times because of this.
- 9:07Speaker 2: Today, Annilla studies law at North South University. She fights
- 9:13Speaker 2: for the rights of disabled people. She gives speeches that
- 9:17Speaker 2: move others. Nila, like Richard and others with cerebral palsy,
- 9:23Speaker 2: has goals and courage. They have dreams. They just need
- 9:27Speaker 2: a little help reaching them. But most of all, they
- 9:33Speaker 2: need to be listened to. They need the world to see.
- 9:38Speaker 2: They need the world to see more than their wheelchairs.
- 9:42Speaker 1: Do you know anyone with cerebral palsy? Is there some
- 9:45Speaker 1: kind of challenge in your life that you are trying
- 9:47Speaker 1: to overcome? You can leave a comment on our website
- 9:50Speaker 1: at www dot Spotlight English dot com. You can also
- 9:55Speaker 1: find us on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Blue Sky, and ex.
- 10:00Speaker 1: You can also get our programs delivered directly to your
- 10:03Speaker 1: and writer Apple device through our free official Spotlight English app.
- 10:08Speaker 2: The writer of this program was Peter Anderson. The producer
- 10:12Speaker 2: was mitchio Ozaki. The voices you heard were from the
- 10:16Speaker 2: United States and the United Kingdom. All quotes were adapted
- 10:20Speaker 2: for this program and voiced by Spotslight. This program is
- 10:24Speaker 2: called I Am Not Drunk.
- 10:28Speaker 1: We hope you can join us again for the next
- 10:30Speaker 1: Spotlight program. Goodbye,