CHRISTY BROWN

Christy Brown was one of 23 children born to an Irish Bricklayer. Unfortunately he was a victim of Cerebral Palsy and at a very early age was declared by doctors to be mentally defective and that nothing could be done for him. His mother didn't believe them and said of her son "It is his body that is shattered and not his mind, I'm sure of it". Christy's condition meant that he couldn't control his speech or his movement, except for his left foot. One day whilst his sister was playing with some chalk and a blackboard, he picked up a piece of the chalk with his left foot and made some marks with it. From that point on his mother taught him the alphabet, a slow and frustrating process for the young Christy. He started to sign his initials C.B., then moved on to his name and gradually began to write. He also found and developed a talent for painting, again using his left foot and when he was 12 years old won a Sunday Independent children's painting competition.

As he grew older, his writing improved and he eventually wrote his autobiography My Left Foot, immortalised in the film of the same name starring Daniel Day Lewis, four other novels and a collection of poetry.

(Source - My Left Foot by Christy Brown)

To ask about any aspect of Accelerated Learning, e-mail michael2007 (at) happychild.org.uk . Due to Michael's hectic schedule, he may not be able to write back, but will do his best to cover the main issues raised, in future articles [more about Michael on the page here].

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