What You Need To Know About Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral palsy is a disorder of movement, muscle tone or posture, that is caused by damage that occurs to the immature, developing brain often before birth. Its chance of occurrence is as frequent as one in every 400 babies.

Learn more about the condition below:

What Is Cerebral Palsy?

Cerebral Palsy (CP) is a term that covers a range of physical disabilities that interfere with the ability to move. It’s a neurological disorder caused by injury to the brain during pregnancy or shortly after birth.

Symptoms of CP are often noticed during infancy or the preschool years.

Signs That A Child Has Cerebral Palsy

Generally speaking, a child who has cerebral palsy will have difficulty with posture and movement, although, no two children with CP will present the exact same symptoms because the parts of the brain affected in development for each child varies and the extent of injury varies also.

See general signs and symptoms below:

Variations in muscle tone, such as being either too stiff or too floppy
Stiff muscles and exaggerated reflexes (spasticity)
Stiff muscles with normal reflexes (rigidity)
Lack of muscle coordination (ataxia)
Tremors or involuntary movements
Slow, writhing movements (athetosis)
Delays in reaching motor skills milestones, such as pushing up on arms, sitting up alone or crawling
Favoring one side of the body, such as reaching with only one hand or dragging a leg while crawling
Difficulty walking, such as walking on toes, a crouched gait, a scissors-like gait with knees crossing, a wide gait or an asymmetrical gait
Excessive drooling or problems with swallowing
Difficulty with sucking or eating
Delays in speech development or difficulty speaking
Difficulty with precise motions, such as picking up a crayon or spoon
Seizures

Diagnosis And Treatment

It may be difficult to diagnose CP in young infants. The condition can therefore go undetected until the child presents difficulty with movement and posture. Treatment may require a team of professionals including speech-language pathologists, a pediatrician, a surgeon.

Treatment intervention often involves the use of the following:

Medications
Therapy
Surgery

What You Can Do:

When a child is affected with CP, the whole family faces new challenges, you can lessen the stress by doing the following:

1. Foster your child’s independence.

2. Be your child’s advocate. You are an important part of your child’s health care team. Don’t be afraid to ask tough your child’s physicians, therapists and teachers tough questions.

3. Find support. A circle of support can make a big difference in helping you and your child cope with the effects of the condition. Your doctor can help you locate support groups, organizations and counseling services in your community. Your child may also benefit from family support programs, school programs and counseling.

Most importantly, learning should be fun not pressured, your child will come around.