11-Year-Old with Cerebral Palsy Walks for First Time in Sweet Video: ‘She Was Super Excited’
For the past few months, 11-year-old Birkley, who has cerebral palsy, has worked hard to walk on her own. A series of sweet videos shows the little girl mastering the feat — and warming hearts in the process!
In a video shared on Oct. 29, Birkley is shown sporting a wide smile as she strolled by herself near her family’s Colorado home for more than a minute in a video viewed more than 450,000 times. Birkley’s mother, Tamra Logan, told ABC News it was the “longest distance she ever walked.”
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“Walking with Birk this weekend,” Logan wrote alongside her Facebook video. “Her new activity.. seeing if she can walk the whole distance from our house, past the park, and till she can’t walk anymore.”
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Up until recently, Birkley, who is nearly deaf, had crawled or walked on her knees while wearing special knee pads, Logan told ABC. She has undergone physical therapy for years to learn to walk on her feet by herself.
“She was super excited, she was just surprised at herself, at what she was doing,” Logan told ABC of the video. “I think you could tell.”
Less than two weeks earlier, on Oct. 17, walked independently for the first time in her life. Logan gushed about the clip in her caption, writing, “So this happened tonight..Birkley really walking by herself for the first time ever!!!”
Logan regularly shares updates on Birkley via a Facebook page called Special Living Today. In one post, the doting mom called Birkley’s walking a “miracle.”
In another Facebook video, Logan showed Birkley walking down a hallway at school on her own, even surprising her classmates.
“Birkley walking to class this morning,” she wrote. “I’ve had her in PT on Tuesday mornings for forever and this is the first time I was able to bring her and have her walk herself to class. You can hear a little girl in the background.. ‘Birkley’s walking?’ I keep holding back the tears.”
Since taking her first steps, Birkley has been getting stronger and walking even longer distances, Logan told ABC.