Cerebral Palsy

The cause of cerebral palsy is an injury to the brain during birth.  Nobody knows for sure how the brain was injured or what to do to prevent it. It could be caused by an infection or from an accident that hurts the mother.  If the mother has medical problem such as high blood pressure or diabetes, this can also cause cerebral palsy.  It can happen during birth when a baby doesn’t get enough oxygen or when the baby is hard to deliver and, the baby’s brain is injured.  Even babies born at the right time could get it by infection or bleeding in the brain when the baby’s brain is still developing.  The important thing you must remember is that you cannot “catch” cerebral palsy from another human, and you do not develop it later in life. 

Spastic Cerebral Palsy

If the muscle tone is tight or too high, this is described to the word spastic, the word spastic is used to describe cerebral palsy.  Kids with spastic cerebral palsy have stiff and jerky muscles because they are too tight.  They often can’t move from one position to another or let go of something in their hand. Spastic cerebral palsy is the most common cerebral palsy.

Ataxic Cerebral Palsy

Ataxic cerebral palsy is when muscle tone is too low and there is poor coordination of movements.  Children with ataxic cerebral palsy look shaky and unsteady.  They shake when they try to write, turn a page, or cut with a scissors.  Kids also often have poor balance and may turn unsteady when walking.

Athetoid Cerebral Palsy

The word athetoid is used to describe mixed cerebral palsy when the muscle tone is too high and too low.  Kids with athetoid cerebral palsy have trouble holding themselves in an upright, steady position for sitting or walking, and often show a lot of movements they don’t mean to make.

Mixed Cerebral Palsy

When the muscle tone is too low and in some muscles it is too high, this type of cerebral palsy is called mixed.

Quadriplegia

When a child shows cerebral palsy in all arms and legs, it is called quadriplegia.  Quad means four.  They have trouble moving all their body parts.  They sometimes need a wheelchair to get from one place to another.  They also have trouble eating and talking.

Hemiplegia

Hemiplegia means cerebral palsy affects one side of the body. Hemi means half. So the right arm and leg are affected or, the left arm and leg is affected. The other side of the body is just fine.

Diplegia

Some kids just have cerebral palsy in their legs, and it is much more severe when it is in the legs than in the arms.  This is called diplegia Di means two, so only two limbs are affected.

Wheelchairs

Wheelchairs help people get from one place to another.  It is a chair on wheels that you push or wheel, sometimes it has a motor in it so you move it with a lever.

Walkers

Some kids with cerebral palsy can walk, but they have a poor balance.  A walker helps them keep their balance and to get around without a wheelchair.  A walker is a light metal frame with four legs.  Some kids put a bike basket on their walker to put their things in.

Adapted silverware and pencils

Special grips or handles are very helpful for people who have trouble holding on to small things.  The grips are on spoons, forks, pens, and pencils to make it easier for kids who have cerebral palsy.

Helmets

Everyone knows what a helmet is, it is just like what you wear when you ride a bike, you would probably be surprised to see someone wearing one in school. Kids with cerebral palsy wear them so they don’t hurt their head when they fall (remember they have trouble walking and they might have a seizure and fall down).

Physical Therapy

Physical therapists help kids learn better ways to balance or move.  Sometimes they play games during therapy like learn to ride a bike.

Speech and Language Therapy

Speech therapists work with kids on their communication skills, they may need help talking, using sign language, or using a communication aid.  They can also write out their message on a piece of paper. Even computers talk for them!

Occupational Therapy

Therapists help kids work with using their upper body.  They teach them easier ways to write, cut with scissors, or draw, brush their teeth, dress and feed themselves.  Occupational therapists also help find equipment to make everyday jobs easier.

Recreational Therapy

These therapists help kids with cerebral palsy have fun!  They work at them with sports. In recreational therapy children may work on dancing, swimming or horseback riding. They may also work on art.

Talking and Eating

Just as cerebral palsy can cause problems in the limbs it also causes problems eating or talking.  When you meet someone with cerebral palsy you know it is hard to understand their speech.  This is because they can’t move their tongue, lips, or jaw move as fast as you can.  

Learning Problems

About one quarter kids to one half kids with cerebral palsy have learning problems.  It is also known as a learning disability because they have trouble in one or two subjects at school.  It could be a more severe problem like mental retardation, which means they learn things at a slower rate. They might be able to do a few subjects.  This doesn’t mean they can’t learn, it just means they can’t learn as fast as kids can when they don’t have cerebral palsy.

Seizures 

Half the people with cerebral palsy have seizures.  This means that there is an abnormal activity in their brain that interrupts what they are doing.  Often the abnormal activity is the same place where the brain injury was that caused the cerebral palsy.  Your brain is always sending messages out to your body.  A seizure is a group of abnormal messages to close together.  These messages may cause muscles to stop moving or the person to start staring. A seizure may cause you to fall down.  It could take several minutes to several hours to recover from a seizure.  Many people take medicine to prevent seizures or to lower the number of seizures they have.

You may already know that kids without cerebral palsy can get a seizure.