What is Cerebral Palsy
Cerebral palsy is the name for a group of lifelong conditions that affect physical (movement, sensation and coordination) and cognitive (information processing, communication, learning) development. It's caused damage to the brain that occurs before, during or soon after birth. The affected area of the brain is unable to form effective lines of communication with the related area of the body for appropriate activity or movement, resulting in signs and symptoms including:
- delays in reaching developmental milestones
- seeming too stiff or too floppy
- weak arms and/or legs
- fidgety, jerky or clumsy movements
- random, uncontrolled movements
- walking on tiptoes
- muscle spasms
- tremors
- Other difficulties include – sight, hearing, speech and communication, feeding and swallowing, bowel and bladder issues, sleep, epilepsy and intellectual impairments and learning disabilities.
Types of cerebral palsy
There are 4 main types of cerebral palsy:
- spastic cerebral palsy – the muscles are stiff, tight and jerky, making it difficult to move and reducing the range of movement.
- athetoid dyskinetic cerebral palsy – the muscles switch between stiffness and floppiness, causing random, uncontrolled body movements or spasms.
- ataxic cerebral palsy – when a person has balance and co-ordination problems, resulting in shaky or clumsy movements and sometimes tremors.
- mixed cerebral palsy – when a person has symptoms of more than one type of cerebral palsy.
You may also hear terms such as hemiplegia or diplegia. These refer to the parts of the body affected by cerebral palsy.
Hemiplegia means one side of the body is affected, diplegia is where two limbs are affected, monoplegia is where one limb is affected, and quadriplegia is where all four limbs (and usually the whole body) are affected.
Although Cerebral Palsy is a permanent life-long condition, some symptoms of Cerebral Palsy can improve with physiotherapy interventions or worsen over time if not treated or managed.
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