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TYPES
 Physical disabilities are more common than many people think. According to the Center for the Disease Control, more than 50 million Americans have disabilities. According to the World Health Organization, more than 650 million people in the world have a disabilities. Many of them suffer from physical disabilities. There are two major types of physical disabilities. One type is called skeletal and they affect our skeletal system. The other major type is neuromuscular. These physical disabilities include issues with the nervous and muscular system.
Physical disabilities affect how a person controls movement of the body. Some people have severe physical disabilities that do not allow them to move part of their body at all. Others have less severe disabilities that limit the movement and control of movement. Sometimes, physical problems are a result of other diseases for example diabetes or epilepsy, because such diseases can limit activities that a person can take part in.
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Follow the link below to see our experiment and the lessons in living with physical disability we learned
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Physical disabilities limit a persons control of his or her own body. Click here to learn about problems that people with physical disabilities may experience:
There are several types of physical disabilities.
People with physical disabilities could experience:
1. COORDINATION PROBLEMS
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People who suffer from physical disability may have coordination problem. This may be caused by weak muscles or nervous system disorders. That coordination may have effect of gross motor and fine motor skills.Lack of gross motor coordination means that they may lose balance and could fall easily, because large body muscles are having problems . In addition they may lack coordination when walking, running or engaging in activities in which they use eye- hand coordination, like playing sports, writing, or even driving.Fine motor skills are those we use to write, type or draw. They often involve fingers and hand muscles. People with this problems may need adaptive devices such as special keyboards to do work.
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2. MUSCLE WEAKNESS
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Muscle weakness happens when a person is not able to use their muscles with a strength the same way as his or her peers.This can happen because the nerves in nervous system are not sending messages to muscles as needs. Another reason may be lack of nutrients that supply body with energy. People with muscle weakness may not be able to endure in physical activities or use muscles to carry weight, including their body as their peers can. They can also experience tiredness. This condition often keeps them from participating in activities their peers may be participating. Muscle weakness can also be caused by atrophy. Atrophy happens when muscle is not used as often as needed.Because it is not used, a muscle gets smaller and can do less work.
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3. LACK OF MUSCLE CONTROL
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Muscles can have voluntary or involuntary control. Involuntary control is found in muscles that work automatically, for example heart ( it beats without person telling it to beat). Other muscles are controlled by a person and they are called voluntary. Muscles that help us move are mostly skeletal muscles, which means that they are connected to our skeleton. Problems with controlling muscles can happen because of muscle problems, skeleton problem or nervous system problem. In this case your nervous system cannot tell your muscles to move. For example, you may want to pick up a book but your nervous system is not delivering a message to your muscles, or your arm bone is broken so it cannot function, or your muscle is to weak to do what a nervous system tells it to.
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4. LIMITED ACTIVITY
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Disabilities may limit the activities a person can participate in. For example, diseases such as epilepsy or diabetes may make some activities dangerous. People suffering from these disabilities may need to have their medication handy or wear protective gear. For example, a person with epilepsy may have to wear a helmet all day long.
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5. LOSS OF MUSCLE FUNCTION
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Loss of muscle function is also called paralysis. Usually paralysis is caused by damage to brain and nervous system, especially our spinal cord. This can happen by injury or by disease.Paralysis may happen in a small part of the body or it can affect large parts of body, for example from the waist down. Most of the times paralysis cannot be cured and a person has to adapt to life without muscle function. Often this is done with use of adaptive devices such as wheelchairs, walkers or head pointing devices for typing.
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