Opinion: Life's Lessons From the Front Line

Sandra Houghton is a self-advocate with extensive experience in systems advocacy, human rights and leadership development. She developed the Self-Advocacy Leadership Series, the first program in the U.S. that focuses on communication and social skills to teach individuals with developmental disabilities to become "self-advocates." Houghton currently conducts SALS training seminars at the Massachusetts Developmental Disabilities Council in Quincy

Imagine a childhood without play dates or birthday parties, sleepovers or school dances. Doesn’t sound like much of a childhood, does it? Well, for children with disabilities — developmental and otherwise, it is more often than not, the norm.
Having grown up with cerebral palsy, I know what it feels like to be "different." Even within my own family I felt like an outcast. My brother could do no wrong. My little sister had the looks and the brains. But I was just the disabled kid. I didn’t have the opportunities that my siblings had — no friends, no social experiences.