A Brief overview of Cerebral Palsy and how it can be classified
Cerebral Palsy or CP, is a neurological disability that affects movement, coordination and posture. ‘Cerebral’ refers to the brain and ‘palsy’ refers to a lack of muscle control. CP is a permanent life-long condition caused by damage to the developing brain either during pregnancy, shortly after birth or during a child’s first year of life. CP can affect people in very different ways including their movement, muscle control, muscle coordination, muscle tone, reflex, posture and balance. People who have CP may also have visual, learning, hearing, speech, epilepsy and intellectual impairments. What Causes Cerebral Palsy?
The exact cause for children developing CP is often unknown. A small percentage of cases are due to complications during birth if a child …show more content…
Tone and Movement Patterns
Professionals will often describe your child’s muscle tone, as this will influence your child’s posture and how the muscles work together. When muscle tone is impaired, muscles do not work together and can even work in opposition to one another.
Muscle tone can be described as:
Hypertonia/Hypertonic: this is when the muscle tone is increased and limbs can feel stiff to move. Hypertonia is associated with spastic cerebral palsy.
Hypotonia/Hypotonic: this is when the muscle is described as low tone or floppy. Hypotonia is associated with non-spastic cerebral palsy.
Professionals will also describe the way your child moves their limbs and body (movement patterns). Often children will present with a mixture of movement patterns:
Ataxic/Ataxia: Ataxia is not very common and means ‘without order’ or ‘incoordination’. Children will appear clumsy and have difficulty with precision of fine motor tasks such as picking things up between their finger and thumb. Their movements will appear jerky and disorganized and they will also have difficulty with
Cerebral Palsy or CP, is a neurological disability that affects movement, coordination and posture. ‘Cerebral’ refers to the brain and ‘palsy’ refers to a lack of muscle control. CP is a permanent life-long condition caused by damage to the developing brain either during pregnancy, shortly after birth or during a child’s first year of life. CP can affect people in very different ways including their movement, muscle control, muscle coordination, muscle tone, reflex, posture and balance. People who have CP may also have visual, learning, hearing, speech, epilepsy and intellectual impairments. What Causes Cerebral Palsy?
The exact cause for children developing CP is often unknown. A small percentage of cases are due to complications during birth if a child …show more content…
Tone and Movement Patterns
Professionals will often describe your child’s muscle tone, as this will influence your child’s posture and how the muscles work together. When muscle tone is impaired, muscles do not work together and can even work in opposition to one another.
Muscle tone can be described as:
Hypertonia/Hypertonic: this is when the muscle tone is increased and limbs can feel stiff to move. Hypertonia is associated with spastic cerebral palsy.
Hypotonia/Hypotonic: this is when the muscle is described as low tone or floppy. Hypotonia is associated with non-spastic cerebral palsy.
Professionals will also describe the way your child moves their limbs and body (movement patterns). Often children will present with a mixture of movement patterns:
Ataxic/Ataxia: Ataxia is not very common and means ‘without order’ or ‘incoordination’. Children will appear clumsy and have difficulty with precision of fine motor tasks such as picking things up between their finger and thumb. Their movements will appear jerky and disorganized and they will also have difficulty with