Arlo is 10. He loves playing on his xBox. He has cerebral palsy, uses a wheelchair and needs help from his parents and other adults with many of the things in his life that involve movement. His particular type of cerebral palsy affects his emotions too and he needs help to regulate these.
Impact on sibling
Missing out
Floyd often misses out on physical activities, which are really important to him. As a lone parent his mum Ruby cannot spontaneously decide to go to the park for a football kick-around with him and he is too young to go and do these things with his friends by himself. He would love to go bouldering or surfing. Things like this have to wait until a carer is available to look after Arlo and then it has to be a separate activity for each brother. Floyd doesn’t like it that his brother can’t join in.
I feel sad when Arlo can’t do the same playground activities as me
Disrupted sleep
Floyd shares a bedroom with Arlo and is often exhausted during the day because he can’t get to sleep or gets woken up at night. This is because Arlo finds it hard to get comfortable in bed and cannot go to the loo or get a drink by himself and needs to call out to his mum for help.
Difference from peers
Floyd is not able to play with his friends in the living room when they come round to his house. The living room is where most of Arlo’s equipment and specialised gaming and computer activities are, so he needs to use this room. The family’s expenditure on these very expensive items also means that less money is available for activities for Floyd.
Heightened sensitivity
Floyd has to be careful about how he argues with his brother. He is aware that Arlo can become easily upset or angry due to the way his cerebral palsy affects his moods. This is very difficult for Floyd and he would like to be able to have normal arguments with his brother.