Teaching and sharing about life with CP

For Stephen Bird, the key to success has been finding the balance between health, life and work.

By Melanie Louden

Stephen Bird has learnt to love his disability.

The Hamilton man sees it as an opportunity – one he has proudly taken into his workplace and beyond.

Stephen is a qualified registered Early Childhood Education (ECE) teacher – a career that he fell into by accident and quickly fell in love with.

The 38-year-old, who lives with Cerebral Palsy – Hōkai Nukurangi which affects his speech and his right hand, had a Certificate in Travel and a Diploma in International Tourism under his belt.

But when it came time to look for work, Stephen couldn’t find a job. He believes his speech impediment played a part in that.

“Nine times out of 10 everyone wanted a phone interview first. And I feel that when people meet me via the phone, nine times out to 10 I wouldn’t get that face-to-face interview.”

While he was job hunting, he was offered some hours as an unqualified ECE relief teacher.

He enjoyed it so much that his focus quickly changed from tourism to education.

“I love the kids. I love watching them succeed and empowering themselves to learn new things – that ‘ah-ha’ moment.”

Six months later, Stephen returned to university and started studying for a Bachelor of Teaching Early Childhood Education.

When Stephen graduated from Wintec in 2012, he was 25 years old and was the first male to complete the course, and the first person living with Cerebral Palsy – Hōkai Nukurangi to do so.

He quickly found work by walking into early childhood centres, rather than relying on the initial phone calls, introducing himself and asking about vacancies.

Stephen loved working with the children, but the hardest part of being an ECE teacher and living with Cerebral Palsy – Hōkai Nukurangi, was the admin work that went with the role.

“Things take me a bit longer. I couldn’t get the job done during work hours so I took it home. My work life started invading my personal life. That impacted my mental health. 

“On a Saturday morning, instead of enjoying the weekend I was opening the admin books. I was doing 60-70 hours a week so I could keep up.”

So, in 2017 Stephen made a small, but vital tweak to his work.

He gave up his full-time work as a permanent ECE teacher and began work as a reliever for Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. 

“It’s about a balance between health, life and work.”

“When I was [working full time], I blamed a lot on my CP. ‘CP sucks.’ ‘It’s a curse.’ ‘It’s horrible.’”

Once he took on relief work, Stephen says he “was able to open my life again”.

He also began to look at CP as an opportunity to educate others and share about living life with a disability.

“Kids are very forgiving and accepting. Because they have innocent minds, they love the world, they don’t question.

“A few times I might have been asked ‘why do you talk like that?’ and I just say, ‘everyone speaks differently’.

“Children learn from having a teacher with a disability, that they can be openminded and they can feel confident to ask questions and accept differences.”

Stephen, husband to wife Lee and dad to their sons Macgyver, 2.5 years old, and Lokland, 3 months old, says he wants to educate people about disability.

“I want to make people aware. If you’ve got a question – just ask. I’m very open.

“My dream job would be to work in the disability sector mentoring, helping and coaching people.”

Stephen has taken part in two Aspiring Leaders Forums, done a lot of mentoring and public speaking, including visiting schools to talk about being different and school bullying.

He’s also facilitated a university workshop about being male, white and working in a Maori organisation, while living with a disability. 

Stephen says he was “fortunate enough to have an amazing upbringing and parents and brothers who just treated me as normal – whatever normal is”. 

“Growing up it was hard, because yes, I was bullied. I went through all that horrible bullying school stuff. But I never let it affect me. 

“I wanted to get my drivers licence – so I did. I wanted to get a job – so I did. I got married. I had children.”

He’s also completed the Hamilton Half Marathon, an Outward Bound course and been on the Spirit of Adventure. 

“All that really opened my eyes up….’man, I can do stuff like this’.”

Stephen says being a member of the Cerebral Palsy Society has “been amazing”.

“I’ve been able to access so much – gym memberships, financial help to get equipment to make life a bit easier, advice.

“I’ve taken up the opportunity when I’ve come across other people with CP to advocate for the CP Society.”

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This article was originally published in the March 2025 edition of The Review magazine.

 

For more information:
Melanie Louden
Communications Manager
melanie@cpsociety.org.nz
Mobile: 022 087 819