About Cerebral Palsy
About Cerebral Palsy
People with cerebral palsy have damage to their brain or have a brain that has developed atypically. The damage to the brain occurs either before birth or during the child’s early development. It causes disruption to the development of movement and posture.
Cerebral palsy is the most common physical disability in children. Around 1 in 500 births will result in a diagnosis of cerebral palsy and in Scotland around 150 children are diagnosed each year. Cerebral palsy affects a person’s ability to control their movement, posture and balance. Muscles can be tight, stiff or floppy. Mobility can be affected, and one in three children with cerebral palsy are unable to walk.
Effects of Cerebral Palsy
As well as affecting movement, cerebral palsy can affect other areas of function:
- Communication: One in four people with cerebral palsy are unable to talk, and instead use alternative methods of communication including high-tech aids.
- Eating and drinking: Some people with cerebral palsy can have difficulties with eating, drinking and swallowing.
- Pain: Three-quarters of people living with cerebral palsy experience pain.
- Epilepsy: Affects one in four children with cerebral palsy.
- Learning disability: One in every two people with cerebral palsy has a learning disability.
- Vision impairment: Some people with cerebral palsy have a vision impairment, with one in ten having a severe vision impairment.
- Bladder control problems: Affect one in four children with cerebral palsy. Lack of mobility can also cause issues with constipation.
- Sleep: One in five children with cerebral palsy have a sleep disorder.
- Saliva control: One in five children with cerebral palsy have difficulty controlling saliva, leading to drooling.
- Sensory: Difficulties with sensory processing can be quite common in children with cerebral palsy. Some children can find going to sleep and waking up distressing, and so cry a lot. Others don’t receive the sensory information they need from joints to guide movement.
A Lifelong Condition
Cerebral palsy is a lifelong condition. While the original injury to the brain doesn’t get worse over time, this doesn’t mean cerebral palsy is a ‘static’ condition that never changes.
As a person with cerebral palsy grows, they can develop secondary problems with their muscles or skeleton, such as increased tightness in muscles and joints and dislocations. This can change a person’s physical abilities over time. People can also experience problems with pain and fatigue as they grow older.
Four Main Types
There are four main types of cerebral palsy: spastic, dyskinetic, ataxic and mixed.
Spastic Cerebral Palsy
This is the most common type of cerebral palsy. Spastic means the affected muscles are stiffer and tighter than normal. How stiff the muscle is will vary from person to person.
Dyskinetic Cerebral Palsy
In this type of cerebral palsy the muscle tone can suddenly change from high (tight) to low (floppy), causing uncontrolled involuntary movements or spasms.
Ataxic Cerebral Palsy
This is the least common type of cerebral palsy. Movement is often shaky and balance can be poor. Children often have difficulty with the fine control of movement and may have a tremor that increases on activity. Muscle tone is usually low (slightly floppy) and this can make sustaining upright postures such as sitting or standing difficult.
Mixed Cerebral Palsy
Mixed types of cerebral palsy features of more than one type of cerebral palsy.
Parts of the Body
Cerebral palsy affects different parts of the body.
Unilateral Cerebral Palsy
Unilateral cerebral palsy or hemiplegia means one side of the body is affected – either the left side, or the right side.
Bilateral Cerebral Palsy
Bilateral cerebral palsy involves both sides of the body and can also be described as:
Diplegia
Diplegia means the legs are more affected than the arms. The trunk is typically also involved.
Quadriplegia
Quadriplegia (also called total body involvement) is where the whole body is involved. This includes the trunk, head control and often control of the muscles of the face and mouth.
