Jo’s story: A Woman with Cerebral Palsy.
“Unlocking potential with specialised learning”
Jo Broekstra was born with mild-severe Cerebral Palsy . Her parents were told that she would not live to 20 and would never walk or talk. Jo Broekstra is now in her 50's and lives in a supported accommodation centre. She gets around in her scooter, has lots of friends, loves writing and going to watch the Pies.
Jo had little schooling that was often interrupted by bouts of sickness. At the age of 46, Jo was unable to read simple words and barely made out her own signature. She decided to do a Basic Literacy course at Yooralla in 2000. This was for 4 hours per day, one day per week.
Jo struggled with this but found the class interesting and challenging. She persisted for over 2 years and eventually was able to type simple sentences with few spelling mistakes. This excited Jo as she could now write simple cards & notes to people herself. Later she relished the opportunity of sending off letters to friends and acquaintances. After sometime Jo decided she wanted to learn how to surf the net and was accepted into this course at Yooralla also.
Jo's confidence grew dramatically from this as she was thrilled to find new information that she could read as well as sending emails to friends. Jo explained that she felt less disabled by “surfing the net”.
Since then time Jo has moved on to do courses at the CAE and is enjoying writing her own life story and many other stories.