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Cerebral Palsy - A guide for teachers
The following information is supplied by SCOPE
What is cerebral palsy?
If a child has cerebral
palsy, it means that part of the child's brain either is not working properly
or has not developed. The affected area is usually one of the parts which
control the muscles and certain body movements. In some people, cerebral palsy
is barely noticeable. Others will be more severely affected. No two people
will be affected in quite the same way.
What are the main forms of cerebral palsy?
Cerebral palsy jumbles messages between the brain and muscles. There are three
types of cerebral palsy, depending on which messages are affected - spastic,
athetoid and ataxic. Many people with cerebral palsy have a combination of two
or more types.
The complexity of cerebral palsy and its effect vary from one person to another, so it is often difficult to classify precisely which type of cerebral palsy a child has and to what degree.
Spastic cerebral palsy
'Spastic' means 'stiff'
and this form of cp stiffens muscles and decreases the range of movement in
joints. This tightness or stiffness is always there and means that a person
with spastic cp has to work harder to walk or move. Spastic cp is the most
common form of cp. It can be increased by strenuous activity. It can be
described as:
Hemiplegia - when either the left or the right half of the body is affected.
Diplegia - when both legs are affected but the arms are not, or are only slightly affected.
Quadriplegia - when both legs and both arms are equally affected.
Athetoid cerebral palsy
Children with this kind
of cerebral palsy make involuntary movements because their muscles rapidly
change from floppy to tense in a way they can't control. Their speech may be
hard to understand because they have difficulty controlling their tongue,
breathing and vocal cords. Hearing problems are also common.
Ataxia cerebral palsy
Children with this kind of
cerebral palsy find it very difficult to balance. They may also have poor
spatial awareness (sometimes called "cortical visual impairment") and generally
uncoordinated movements. Ataxia affects the whole body. Generally a person will
be able to walk, but they will probably be very unsteady. They may also have
shaky hand movements and jerky speech.
What are the effects of cerebral palsy?
A child
with cerebral palsy may have some of the following features, slightly or more
severely:
• slow, awkward or jerky movements
• stiffness
• weakness
• muscle spasms
• floppiness
• unwanted movements
• the start of one movement often results in other unwanted movements.
Are there other difficulties associated with cerebral palsy?
Certain difficulties and medical conditions occur more commonly in
children with cerebral palsy. However, just because a child has cerebral palsy
it does not mean he will also have these other difficulties.
Some children with cerebral palsy have problems with speech which are often associated with difficulties in chewing and swallowing. Some may have difficulty understanding the spoken word. Contact the child's speech and language therapist if you have any doubts.
Children with cerebral palsy sometimes develop epilepsy. If this does happen, it is very often possible to control these attacks with medication.
Some children have difficulty distinguishing and comparing shapes. This is to do with visual perception, the ability to interpret what has been seen, rather than eyesight.
Sometimes they have a squint, which may need correction with glasses or, in severe cases, an operation. More serious eye problems are much less common.
Children with athetosis are more likely to have hearing difficulties than other children with cerebral palsy.
What about learning difficulties?
Children who
are unable to control their movements very well, or cannot talk, are often
assumed to have a learning disability. However, many children with cerebral
palsy have average intelligence and some have higher than average.
Some children with difficulties may be mild, moderate or severe. Children with cerebral palsy may have a 'specific learning difficulty' - that is, a problem with one particular kind of activity, such as reading, drawing or arithmetic - because a particular part of their brain is affected.
For information and support on all aspects of cerebral palsy contact SCOPE . Web site: www.scope.org.uk
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