Show Notes:
What if everything you thought you knew about cerebral palsy was only part of the story?

In this empowering episode of Water Prairie Chronicles, we sit down with the incredible Brittany Gilbert – an author, filmmaker, and entrepreneur who lives with cerebral palsy. Brittany generously shares her lived experience, offering crucial advice and encouragement for parents raising children with CP.

Discover:

• What cerebral palsy is and how it can manifest differently in individuals.
• The power of early intervention and therapies like physical and occupational therapy.
• How parents can foster independence and self-advocacy from a young age.
• The profound impact of a strong support system beyond immediate family.
• Strategies for helping children build meaningful friendships.
• Common misconceptions about CP and how to address them positively.
• Brittany’s current passions and future aspirations in film and writing.

Brittany’s story is a testament to resilience, faith, and the importance of playing to one’s strengths. This interview is a must-listen for anyone seeking to understand life with CP better and gain a hopeful perspective on their child’s future.

Learn more about Brittany Gilbert and her work:

• Website: https://fireballunltd.com
• “Rudy & Me” eBook: https://amzn.to/4jWC0di
• “Rudy & Me” paperback and video: https://fireballunltd.com/film%2Fbook
• Instagram: @fireballunltd

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Music Used:

“LazyDay” by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Artist: http://audionautix.com/

About Brittany Gilbert

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Episode #127: Cerebral Palsy – Hope, Advocacy, and REAL Change?

What if everything you thought you knew about cerebral palsy was only part of the story?

(Recorded April 15, 2025)

Full Transcript of Interview:

Tonya: What if everything you thought you knew about cerebral palsy was only part of the story?

What if you could gain invaluable insights into a thriving adult life with CP directly from someone who lives it every day?

Welcome to Water Prairie, a podcast for parents of children with disabilities. I’m your host, Tonya Wollum, and I’m glad you’re here.

In today’s episode, I’m joined by the incredible Brittany Gilbert, an author, filmmaker, and entrepreneur. Brittany shares her personal journey with cerebral palsy, offering powerful advice and a message of hope for parents navigating this path. Get ready to discover how to foster independence, build strong support systems, and embrace the boundless potential in your child’s life.

Brittany, welcome to Water Prairie.

Brittany: Thank you for having me.

Our Water Prairie listeners are primarily parents. Sometimes it’s grandparents and extended family and friends or teachers, um, of children with disabilities, but it’s primarily parents of young children, and they’ve all come from different experience levels.

So, because my education is low on CP, I wanted to ask you if you could describe what it is and how it might show up in a child’s life. Because I’m sure it’s different from person to person.

Cerebral palsy, the way I would describe it is, it is a developmental disability and for me, I was diagnosed with it at seven months. I wasn’t, you know, sitting up, I wasn’t doing the things that a seven month old, year old, should do.

And so, you know, I develop, I developed at a later time and the best way to describe cerebral palsy, your brain and your body are maybe on different channels. You know. Sometimes, mentally you do something, but physically you may not be able to do it. For example, something as simple as putting on a coat can be a hard task for someone with cerebral palsy. Um. The way we speak. I speak can either be really impaired. Some people stutter, um, some people they have a limp arm or, you know, it’s more of a muscular disability for some people, and for some people it’s more of a mental challenge, and it depends on if the parent works with the child, so every case is different.

Did you work with, um, physical therapists when you were a baby?

Yes. I worked with physical therapist and I worked with occupational therapist and the difference is, physical therapy is like learning how to climb steps. While occupational therapy is like learning how to dress yourself. So occupational is more of day-to-day life skills like dressing yourself, feeding yourself whereas physical therapy is more about building the strength.

My daughter had occupational therapy when she was a, a infant and a toddler where they came to my house. Did you have that type of services before you started school?

Yes. Um, they would come, I dunno if it was twice a week, but yeah, they came and um, I wasn’t too thrilled with them because I wanted to watch tv.

So then when you started school, did you have, did you continue with physical therapy and occupational therapy at school or privately, or how did you do that?

 They had a physical therapist at the school. So, sometimes like during the day she would come and take me out of my classroom, and we’d go to another room and work on buttons, and zippers, and balance, and you know things that helped strengthen me.

When you were, when you were young, I’m thinking maybe elementary age, you know, ’cause you’re, you’re starting to get out with other kids. You’re in, in school now, things like that. What were some of the ways that you were encouraged to be independent and to start advocating for yourself?

Um, I think for me, as far as being independent, I first kind of noticed it when it was, um, playtime like recess. I would try to stick under the teacher the whole time because the equipment was not sufficient for someone who couldn’t climb and you know, do all the things that the other children could do. But fortunately, they had a basketball court and a soccer field, so I gravitated towards soccer even though I was the one that was just running up and down the field, (laughter) and not really you know, getting the ball. But I enjoyed soccer and basketball.

Oh yeah, so, so being in more of a team setting.

Yes.

Yeah. Yeah, I could, I, I could see that. Did you play any sports outside of school?

No, um, because of my CP it just wasn’t somthing that was thought about beyond you know doing it for fun.

Parents of children with cerebral palsy may feel overwhelmed or uncertain about the future. You know, we’re talking about how some of our listeners, they may be young parents and they have a, an infant or a toddler right now, and they might not be sure about what’s gonna happen in the future. Is there a key message of hope or encouragement that you’d like to tell those parents now for them to look toward the future with their child?

Yeah. Um. My mother was also a single parent. And that really just kind of adds to our dilemma, and I also had a heart condition, so you had this 20-year-old trying to raise a child with Cerebral Palsy and a heart condition, but we made it work, and I truly believe because I am a believer because I’m believer because I’m believer that it’s just been the grace of God because if it hadn’t been for going to church on Sundays and reading the Bible. I think that, um, my faith has been my anchor, and I understand that not everyone believes what I believe, and I respect, I respect that. Um. So I think that my overall message will still be to just try to um find someone that’s going through or has been through what you’re going through, and it can be hard to ask for help because you don’t want to look um like you’re clueless. You don’t want to look as if you know, “Oh, I have a child that I can’t take care of,” or “I don’t know how to take care of.” There’s so many resources. So many people that are often just saying, “Hey, let’s get together, have coffee, or you know, whatever the case may be. Um, I think it’s just a matter of understanding that you’re asking for help, not for pity, but you ask for help to better the child’s life.

I think that, that, that’s really important for parents to hear whether their child has CP or any type of disability or learning issue because parents get tired and we feel like we have to have all the answers. But I think it, it’s good for us to all to be reminded that it’s okay to get support.

It’s okay to, to talk to someone else about. Where your struggles are and to get someone else to kind of come alongside you. Did you, now we’re gonna talk about your book in a little bit, but I know your grandmother was part of your life. Was she there to support your mom as well?

Oh yes. My um, and I’m not saying this to make my dad look bad, but he he was not there 95% of the time. My grandmother was there, my grandmother would come visit me. She would let me, you know, stay with her when I wanted to. So my grandmother was a, a big, you know, emotional support you know especially for my mom, because I’m sure she was glad, you know, when I would, um, go to my grandma’s house.

Well, and your mom, you, you said she was a single parent, so she’s having to work and provide for you at the same time, so Yeah. So she would’ve needed help to be able to do that, especially when you were young before you started school.

Right. And, um, she, she worked part-time and the thing about it my grandmother still worked so unfortunately when my mom had to go to work. I had to go with her, but she had a very supportive supervisor that would just let me sit in their um break room No one else could use the break room, no one else came into the break room, I would just sit there, play with toys, take a nap, so he was very um generous towards me and my mom.

Wow. Wow. That’s, that’s very unusual to find something like that. So your mom was fortunate to, to have those people in her life. That’s, that’s, that’s so out of the ordinary too, from what I was thinking.

It is. (Laughter) Especially because she worked at a hotel.

So you’ve got your grandmother involved in your life, you’ve got your dad a little bit in there, and then you’ve got your, even, even the employer is involved in your life to some level because he’s allowing you to be there safely. Um, did you have other, other people in your life, did you have any other babysitters or church volunteers or other people in your neighborhood?

Other family, you know, I had my other grandmom. My other grandparents, of course. They, um, they came to visit a lot or I would go stay with them. Especially on the weekends. And so we had, um, we had some help, but you know, not having my dad around it really made it hard.

Can you think of a situation when, aside from your mom. I would say even your mom and your grandmother, because they were so important with you. Is there an example when you felt like really understood by someone outside of your family and how, like, describe how that that happened.

When my mom and I stayed in these apartments, um, there was this lady, and ironically she was a single parent too, I would play with her little girl. So she and I were pretty close. She was about maybe 2 years older than I am, so she was my first like real friend.

The reason I wanted to to ask you that is. Because I want our parents to see that again. You know, there’s so many unknowns when you get started, you, you just, you don’t know because you’re working with therapists, you’re working with doctors, you’ve got, you’re reading all this information that might be more information than you want to hear right now, but, um.

But you are gonna have friends, you’re, you’re gonna find ways to, to play with the other kids and, you know, maybe you’re not gonna climb on the jungle gym, but you’re gonna play soccer with them on the, on, on, on the playground, at school. Um, you know, and, and friendship is, is finding those things, no matter whether you have a disability or not.

It’s finding those other kids, and like I said, this, this one girl’s a little bit older than you were. And I do hear that a lot, that a lot of our kids are friends with kids a little bit older. It seems to be a good fit. Um, because you’re not competing with a younger child now. You’re, you’re able to just be friends and you benefit as the younger one because you’re learning from someone with a little more experience who could, who can teach you things.

And, um, so that, you know, there, there is, there, there is room for friendships. Um, and I would just encourage our listeners to, to get out there, get, get out to the playground, get out to community things, and let your child be in with the other kids so that they can start making those friends.

Exactly. Especially when they’re small. Because kids from ages like one to maybe five, they don’t care if you have a disability. They just want someone to play with. So I think that’s the best time to try to um allow your child to make friends. Because you know children are not taught that you’re different than me, or you’re this, or you’re that. That doesn’t start until school and they get older, so it’s best to try to form a, or help them form a friendship when they’re still pure.

It’s a good point, and I will add to that. That kids in that range, that that one, two to five are curious. They’re gonna notice differences and they’re gonna have questions, especially if your child has braces on their legs or using crutches or something, they’re gonna ask questions, but then it’s not because they’re passing judgment.

No, they just curious.

My daughter has a saying, where if someone’s staring at her, she wants them just to come and ask the question. She’s like, there, there’s no question you can’t ask, you know, she will tell them why she has a cane out or why, why she’s doing things differently or why her eyes dance back and forth.

She’s like, you know, it’s just, it’s just an answer that’s, it doesn’t have to be hidden and it, and in turn, that teaches your child that it’s okay. That there’s nothing wrong with them. You know, you’re just explaining that yeah, this is just a part of who I am. The same as whether you have blonde hair or brown hair or you know, it’s just part of who you are.

Exactly. And I think sometimes the parent may make it seem like something’s wrong with them. You have some parents, like “there’s something wrong with your child.”

Well, and as parents sometimes you feel that that’s what everyone thinks. It’s not always true, but you feel that way and you, you wanna, you wanna shelter your child, you wanna protect them, but it’s not always that way.

A lot of times it’s just, just curiosity or education and there’s not always a polite way to ask that question.

It’s not. Sometimes the the child will just say, “Why does he walk funny?” They don’t mean it in the way that an adult would say, “Why are you walking funny?” You know a child is more, “I just kind of noticed that you limp a little, or you have braces on your legs. I’m just curious.”

Before we move on to, ’cause I, I wanna, I wanna talk, talk, talk about your book, but before we do, are there any major common misconceptions that you’ve heard about CP and if so, what are they and what would you tell parents on how to kind of explain them?

I think the biggest misconception is that we can’t amount to doing great things. I think people who have not just CP, but even dyslexia, Down syndrome, autism, just because we are different in how we do things, it doesn’t mean we can’t do things. So I would encourage the parent if they see their child likes to draw. You know, okay, that’s an interest. So maybe help the child to develop the interest because that might be their way of communicating, it might be their way of expressing themself. You know, but it’s just a matter of watching your child. What do they like? What do they not like? And trying to play to their strength, but still field some of their weaknesses so that it’s not this um off-balance scale.

I appreciate what you just shared because your child’s art may be their way to share with the world what’s inside their brain, and if they can’t clearly speak it to you, they may be too limited in what they can speak. And as you said, it might be down syndrome, it might be autism. Um, we have people with limited speech.

There’s different reasons why you can’t communicate verbally, but it doesn’t mean that there’s not intelligence behind. That lack of speech and so that communicating in drawing or writing or whatever it might be, may be the way that they’re going to be able to share who they are with you. Let’s move on.

I wanna hear about Rudy and me. Now, um, this is now listeners you, you heard in the intro, but Brittany is an entrepreneur at heart through and through and um, and so she’s finished all of her studies now and she’s out launching this business. And when you look at her website, you’ll see some of what she’s doing and I think there’s a lot more to come.

This is just your beginning now, but. But let’s start, start with the book itself. How did, what is it about, how did you come to do this?

The book, uh, Rudy and Me, is, is a fictional story of a little girl. She’s 12, and her grandmother. And her grandmother has Alzheimer’s. And ironically, this is Alzheimer’s awareness month. Um. I just wanted to toss that in there. Um. And you know the little girl, she’s having some trouble at home. You know. She has a a new stepdad, and he has kids, and she just feels kind of left out, so she goes to spend the summer with her grandmother. And things are fine until grandma starts doing things such as, um, forgetting where they’re going, leaving her keys in the refrigerator, and so it’s later discovered that grandma has what’s called early-onset Alzheimer’s, and the story actually came because my grandmother had early-onset Alzheimer’s. So, I wrote the book in her honor and as a way to bring awareness about Alzheimer’s.

When you’re reading the book, that’s not your personal story, then?

No, no. Um, I just wanted to do something to honor my grandmother because she passed in 2015 of early-onset, and she was only like, oh my goodness, 64, yeah, so she just really got it really early, and it just, um, it really took over her life.

now you’ve also, I saw on your website you’ve also made this into a movie or to a, to a, to a short film.

Yeah, I made it into my first short film. Um. I was so excited to do that, because I always wanted to make movies.

What’s coming up with with what you’re doing? Do you have another book coming? Do you have more films?

Yes, I would love to, um, be able to one day, pitch to you know, a studio like maybe, um, Netflix or Lion’s Gate

 I do wanna do more books.

Well, before we finish up, I have been, for this season, I’ve started adding a section called A Day in the Life. And, um, and so I had one question I was gonna ask you, looking ahead, what are one or two things that you’re most passionate about pursuing or achieving in your life?

In, in, in the, in the near future. We’ll put it that way.

I think trying to get a distribution deal, or film distribution deal. So that way my films can be seen on a bigger platform. And I’ll have more help as far as disability and you know putting the film together. So I think that, um, a distribution deal and just trying to, um, come up with another great book idea.

How can we get a copy of the books?

Um, the books are available on my site, fireballunltd.com, or you can go to, um, lulu.com, and I think amazon.com.

Listeners look in the show notes and you’ll see the direct link for the paperback, the Kindle and her website. And then let’s add to that, um. You’re on Instagram too? What is your Instagram?

Yeah, it’s @fireballunltd.

Okay. So Fireball Unlimited, the abbreviation for that. I’ll, I’ll add that link as well. So listeners, if you have extra questions that you wanna ask her, um. Reach out through, through Instagram or through our website, um, to do that. Well, Brittany, this, this has been fun. I’m glad we were able to work it out.

Thanks for all, all that you’ve shared and being so open with us and, and just for being with me today.

Yeah. Thank you for having me on.

What a truly empowering conversation with Brittany Gilbert. Her insights remind us that with support, advocacy, and a positive mindset, our children can achieve incredible things.

If Brittany’s story resonated with you, please subscribe to Water Prairie wherever you listen to podcasts, so you never miss an episode filled with encouragement and resources for your parenting journey.

You can also visit our website at waterprairie.com for more resources for parents of children with disabilities. Thanks for joining me today. I’ll see you next time.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about Cerebral Palsy: