CENTER AIDS DISABLED KIDS' FAMILIES.Byline: Carolyn R. Saraspi Daily News Staff Writer When Sue Oh of Granada Hills discovered her 3-month-old son had cerebral palsy cerebral palsy (sərē`brəl pôl`zē), disability caused by brain damage before or during birth or in the first years, resulting in a loss of voluntary muscular control and coordination. , she said she felt like she was ``sinking in quicksand quicksand State in which water-saturated sand loses its supporting capacity and acquires the characteristics of a liquid. Quicksand is usually found in a hollow at the mouth of a large river or along a flat stretch of stream or beach where pools of water become partly filled .'' ``I hadn't known a world like this existed,'' Oh said. ``I was oblivious to the world of a child with special needs. When I was told by doctors that my son wasn't going to develop normally, it was the end of the world for me.'' Distraught dis·traught adj. 1. Deeply agitated, as from emotional conflict. 2. Mad; insane. [Middle English, alteration of distract, past participle of distracten, and confused, Oh was referred by the state Department of Children's Services to the Family Focus Resource Center based at Cal State Northridge. The center, one of 16 in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County, is part of a statewide system developed under the California Early Intervention ear·ly intervention n. Abbr. EI A process of assessment and therapy provided to children, especially those younger than age 6, to facilitate normal cognitive and emotional development and to prevent developmental disability or delay. Services Act in an effort to minimize delays in physical, mental and emotional development of children with disabilities. ``We used to put people into institutions years ago,'' said Judith F. Sultan, the center's coordinator. ``Now kids with disabilities are being accepted. We're trying to narrow the gap between the disabled and those with typical development, and the most important time to do that is in the early years.'' The Family Focus Resource Center was established in 1993 in North Hollywood as part of the state's regional Center for the Developmentally Disabled. It moved in August to the Cal State Northridge campus. About 300 families have sought help at the center since then, with about one-third caring for a child with Down's syndrome, Sultan said. Parents can get information about their child's disability through the center's library and 300-page resource directory. The center also offers emotional support to help parents cope with their child's disability, Sultan said. ``We get parents who are falling apart and just need someone to listen,'' she said. Sultan gives parents a binder to organize medical records and other material as a ``place to start.'' ``We provide little things, like simple assertiveness training assertiveness training Psychiatry A procedure in which subjects are taught appropriate interpersonal responses involving frank, honest, and direct expression of their feelings, both positive and negative (that) teaches them how to communicate with professionals. It's an incredible empowering tool because the situation is so overwhelming to them,'' Sultan said. The center's staff also helps find financial aid for parents like Matthew and Mary Pittaway, whose 13-month-old son needed a heart transplant heart transplant Procedure to remove a diseased heart and replace it with a healthy one from a legally dead donor. The first was performed in 1967 by Christiaan Barnard. after being born with several heart defects. In the wake of continuing medical expenses, the Pittaways said they can barely afford the rent on their modest home in Sunland, where they live on welfare checks and their crippled crip·ple n. 1. A person or animal that is partially disabled or unable to use a limb or limbs: cannot race a horse that is a cripple. 2. A damaged or defective object or device. tr.v. son's Social Security money. ``(Matthew Pittaway) called me a couple days ago and was looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. some resources, some help. I called several religious, family and community services, and no one had any money. It's a desperate situation. They are in desperate need of help for their utility bills,'' Sultan said. With the center housed in Cal State Northridge's School of Education, students have fulfilled course requirements working for the center, said Ann R. Bisno, project director for the center and a professor emeritus at the university. The first thing a parent whose child is diagnosed with a disability wants to do is talk to another parent in a similar situation, Sultan said, so the center operates a mentor program. ``I don't think I would have survived the last 15 months without (its) services,'' Oh said. ``I'm still in need of it. It would be a pitiful pit·i·ful adj. 1. Inspiring or deserving pity. 2. Arousing contemptuous pity, as through ineptitude or inadequacy. See Synonyms at pathetic. 3. Archaic Filled with pity or compassion. sight for it not to be there.'' CAPTION(S): Photo PHOTO Judith F. Sultan Urges early help |
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