I had the opportunity to interview Dianna Yell about her son, Ethan Yell. Ethan is 21 years old, 22 on February 24. He was raised with an older sister, Amy, and a younger sister, Emily, neither of which still live in the home. Their Family owns and operates a dairy farm where every family member helps out. Ethan‘s hobbies include fishing, hunting, watching bull riding, and watching football. His favorite color and football team is OU red. His family and I forgive him although we bleed orange, for OSU. Ethan’s strength is his willpower to overcome specific challenges which are physical limitations due to his disability. His medical diagnosis is cerebral palsy.
Ethan’s disability is cerebral palsy which is defined as “a form of paralysis believed
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His strongest subject in school was History, and his most challenging subject was English.When Ethan attended school a typical day for him started with getting up, getting dressed, and putting on his orthotics. Dianna says “ getting around school was a big challenge.” But teachers just gave him a little extra time and that really helped him out. He was able to call Dianna anytime if he had any problems with his braces or anything with class. Dianna adds I wanted him to be just like any other kid. I wanted him to attend all the classes, and I did not want him to have to be put in a room all day long. So Ethan did everything all the other kids did, he just took a little more …show more content…
Ethan‘s physical therapist, which he had for 14 years, told Dianna that “Ethan will not handicap Ethan. If you tell him he’s handicapped and he can’t do it, then he won’t do it. So you need to tell him that he can. You (Ethan’s mom and dad) will be the ones to handicapped him.” Dianna adds “So we’ve always just had that mindset. He’s not handicapped he’s just gotta figure out how to do things in a different way.” there are things that Ethan can’t do, but he finds something else to do that replaces it. For instance, when he goes hunting he may not be able to climb a tree but they figured out a way to get him up there. “ I guess it’s just figuring out a different way to go about it” Dianna says.
Ethan’s mom also worked with children with disabilities at school. She says “It’s not that a lot of other people don’t understand about disabilities, but if they would just show a little bit of compassion for these folks. I mean they work harder than anybody else in the world trying to do what they do. Just have patience and compassion because they can do it it just takes a little bit of time.” Ethan’s dad, Red Yell, adds “We all have a handicap. I can’t dunk the basketball like someone else can, and that’s my