Go John!

John was diagnosed with ataxic cerebral palsy. This is a condition where the cerebellum and the muscles do not make a proper connection. He has a hard time making meaningful movements in his arms and legs. He also has hypotonia which means he has deficient tone and tension which really means he is a little bit floppy.
What all this means for him is really hard to say. He is so young that all they can do is speculate. The doctors say he has a stronger core and so they feel he has a chance of walking someday, maybe on his own, or maybe with a walker.
Because the tongue is a muscle, he will undergo lots of therapy for him to be able to speak and eat solids. They believe that maybe by the time he is four years old he will be beginning to say a few words that we can understand. With the muscles in his arms moving involuntarily, they say it may be hard to communicate with sign language.
The family does a lot of physical therapy with him and we think we are giving him every opportunity to thrive and get the most out of life.
He is eleven months old and the family has been doing professional therapy just about every week. He can sit up, and he has rolled over on his own a total of five times. His family thinks this is a great accomplishment for him he has worked really hard everyday to be able to do this.
He still hasn't been able to scoot, crawl, or even turn himself in a circle. We look forward to the day when we can watch him get excited for and play with his toys.
Johns biggest strength is that he loves people his eyes shine when he is around others he likes to flash lots of cute smiles!
He has a pleasant demeanor and so far has not expressed frustration with his abilities.
His family loves him so much and are so happy he is apart of their family.