Articles

What you need to know of Cerebral palsy

By Ms. Lidiya Varghese : Speech Language Pathologist & Audiologist

Cerebral Palsy is a broad term used to describe a group of chronic movement or posture disorders. “Cerebral” refers to the brain, while “Palsy” refers to a physical disorder, such as a lack of muscle control. Cerebral Palsy(CP) is not caused by problems with the muscles or nerves, but rather with the brain’s ability to adequately control the body. Cerebral Palsy can be caused by injury during birth, although sometimes it is the result of later damage to the brain. The important causes are brain damage, brain injury, drugs, alcohol, maternal infection, neonatal infection and premature birth.
The incidence of cerebral palsy is about 2 per 1000 live births. The incidence is higher in males than in females, CP is divided into four major classifications to describe the different movement impairments. These classifications reflect the area of brain damaged. Symptoms usually appear in the first few years of life and once they appear, they generally do not worsen over time. The four major classifications are: Spastic (difficult or stiff movement), Ataxic (loss of depth perception and balance), Athetoid/Dyskinetic (uncontrolled or involuntary movements), Mixed (a mix of two or more of the above).
There is no cure for CP, but various forms of therapy can help a person with the disorder to function and live more effectively. Treatment may include one or more of the following: physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, drugs to control seizures, alleviate pain or relax muscle spasms.
Communication is difficult for children with cerebral palsy and speech therapy will relieve the frustration of communication problems, which often times affects both sides of the child-caregiver relationship. Hearing loss can be evident in a person with cerebral palsy. Speech therapy helps the child to correct speech disorders, restore speech, use communication aids, learn sign language and improve listening skills. Speech therapy is performed by a speech pathologist and involves regular meetings with the therapist in a one-to-one or group setting.
Speech and language therapists may also be involved very early, if a child has feeding, drinking or swallowing problems. If speech is difficult or if there are any other problems with language, the therapist will work towards using programs to tackle the specific difficulty. Speech therapists can also help them build their language skills for improving their vocabulary to speak in sentences and improving their listening skills. The patient can be provided with picture boards for everyday activities or Computer programs are available to sharpen speech, reading, recall, and listening skills. The intellectual ability of the person far more than their physical disability will determine the person's prognosis.
Timing of intervention becomes particularly important when a child runs the risk of missing an opportunity to learn during a state of maximum readiness. If the most teachable moments or stages of greatest readiness are not taken advantage of a child may have difficulty learning a particular skill later. Early intervention services also have a significant impact on the parents and siblings of an exceptional infant or young child.

“Brain as a computer connected to the internet but with a really bad modem”