Cerebral Palsy is an intellectual disability and neurological disorder with which professionals estimate that approximately 10,000 babies are born every year. Cerebral Palsy affects muscle movement, tone, and necessary motor skills, which overall hinders a person’s ability to move and live in a coordinated and healthy way. Since there is no cure for this disability, there are exclusive remedies to live with it and ways to become more aware and understanding of how this disability affects an individual’s life.
Cerebral Palsy is a lifelong disorder that has no cure. CP affects the body’s movement and muscle coordination, which causes weak balance and posture. There are many different types of CP, such as Spastic, Ataxic, Athetoid, Mixed, Floppy, and Dyskinetic; however, the most common type is Spastic. Each type affects different regions of the brain and impairments to movement and function. Depending on which area of the brain is affected, and overall affects how an individual lives. According to the Centers for Disease Control, Spastic Cerebral Palsy affects about 80% of the population of people who have CP (Molina, 2015). Three different types of Spastic Cerebral Palsy are spastic diplegia, spastic hemiplegia, and spastic quadriplegia. In spastic diplegia, muscle stiffness mainly occurs in the legs and little in the arms while in spastic hemiplegia, one side of the body is affected with the arms more affected than the legs. Spastic quadriplegia is the most severe form of spastic CP and can affect all four limbs along with the torso and face (Molina, 2015). Mostly all people with this type cannot walk and have developmental disabilities. All different types of Cerebral Palsy vary in specific areas; however, all of them have a significant effect on how an individual lives their everyday lives.
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Cerebral Palsy is a result of injury to the brain of a child before they are born, during birth, or anywhere from ages three to five years old. The prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal stages are essential for a child’s growth and development. If something goes wrong during any of these stages, this can be a potential risk factor for a child having CP. Some of the most common risk factors are prematurity, low birth weight, birth asphyxia which is lack of oxygen to the brain, placental abnormalities, maternal infection, hemorrhage, or trauma (Moreno-De-Luca, Andres, Ledbetter, & Martin, 2012). In some cases, socioeconomic factors in different racial and ethnic groups can play a role in determining if a child is born with CP or not while in other cases they may not. According to a case study by the California Department of Health Services, black infants were 29% more likely to have CP than white infants (Olzenak, 2016). The case also showed that Hispanic mothers, especially those aged eighteen or younger, have a higher risk of giving birth to a baby with CP. This could be related to the minority status of these families. How many of these families can be living in poverty with limited money for resources like proper food, vitamins, shelter, or medical attention to watch over the baby before it is born? However, women of any race, ethnicity, or age who do not receive proper prenatal care are twice as likely to give birth to babies with CP than women who receive adequate prenatal care early on in their pregnancy. Many other cases can be the cause of a medical malfunction and something the mother cannot control that happens before, during, or after birth.
There are multiple effects Cerebral Palsy has on an individual, but a considerable impact is the pain in this specific disability can cause. Pain can vary between each person and can occur in different parts of the body, but pain can cause discomfort and restriction from movement, activities, and from enjoying life. This happens in both adults and children, and some can experience pain on certain days while others experience pain every day. In Spastic CP, there is an increase in muscle tone and contractions, which causes deformities, misaligned joints, and problems with movement. Hip pain and hip dislocation are the most commonly found in both children and adults, along with gastrointestinal pain, which can cause constipation and abdominal pain (Penner, Binepal, Switzer, 2012).
Medications and physical therapy are ways to reduce pain and improve the quality of life, although medications do not always work, and physical therapy can cause even more pain. People with this disability might not be able to move or want to move because of the pain they are experiencing, and many cannot sleep properly because of the discomfort. Pain can also impact a person’s behavior and cause them to be more aggressive, which can mainly occur with children in school. Different types and amounts of pain can negatively affect a person both physically and mentally.
While an individual can experience adverse physical effects like different kinds of pain, these individuals can also have intellectual, hearing, and visual deficits, which can impact children in education and life at school and in the workplace for adults. A significant issue that individuals with Spastic CP have to live with is the loss of basic motor movements in both upper and lower limbs. Some individuals struggle with grasping and releasing items caused by excessive stiffness or weakness in their muscles, which reduces their range of motion to move many parts of their body (Colver, Fairhurst, Pharaoh, 2014). Some children cannot hold a pencil, others cannot chew their food correctly, and some struggle to breathe in and out. Braces and wheelchairs may be accommodations to help keep muscles controlled and lessen the pain experienced from stiffness and contractions.
Conductive education is something that began in 1987 to accommodate and provide services for children and adults in educational settings. The classroom is run by a “conductor” who is a trained teacher who can help and work with children appropriately. Conductive education can provide many educational needs like teaching a child how to chew correctly, eat with utensils, how to get dressed and undressed, how to pronounce certain words and sounds, and how to stretch limbs to control properly, balance, hand-eye coordination, and grasping skills (Schenker, Parush, & Rosenbaum, 2016). Tasks, such as eating with a spoon or putting on clothes, may be difficult for those with CP. In this case, assistance is almost always needed.
Talking, hearing, and vision impairments are very common and have a significant effect on education for a child. According to Dana Olzenak from Science Direct, about 40-75% of children with CP have some type of visual impairment (2016). Glasses are essential for these children to have in the classroom to improve learning by observation as well as to enjoy life around them outside of school. Children can also struggle with speech due to a disorder called dysarthria that hinders a person’s ability to use control of their tongue, throat, and lungs (Olzenak, 2016). This can cause a person’s speech to be slurred or slow and can create their facial expressions to be distorted. A speech therapist is a resource that many children use to help correct their speech and to gain better control of the muscles in these body parts.
Learning may also be impacted by children who have learning disabilities, mental retardation, and seizures. Children with Cerebral Palsy can have Individualized Education Programs, which are legal documents that create an educational plan for students with learning disabilities, attention issues, or any other disability (Klang, 2016). It can focus on the student’s strengths and weaknesses and help a child pursue their goals. It’s important with these IEPs that students are learning and developing in the least restrictive environment surrounded by others who do not have to learn CP or other learning disabilities. These IEPs challenge a student and provide any accommodations they might need, such as a shorter assignment, different grading criteria, preferred seating, extended deadlines, and a person to transcribe notes. All these accommodations can help a child to feel more successful in the classroom and help boost their confidence.
The social opportunities of an individual with Cerebral Palsy are also greatly affected throughout their life. Social participation with people in society, especially with young children growing up, is an essential part of helping them develop positive psychosocial well-being and meaningful relationships (Kang, Palisano, Orlin, Chiarello, & King, 2010). According to Allan Colver and the Cerebral Palsy Guidance, studies have shown that people with CP who experience intense pain are more likely to struggle with anxiety, depression, and fear (2014). As a result of the difficulty in mobility and communication, can cause limitations in social activities like participating in sports or going to social events, which can create a feeling of isolation and cause a child to develop depression. Places may not have accommodations for people with disabilities like CP, which can make it more difficult for them to travel and be present around others. Children with CP need to be in classrooms with other students who don’t have CP so that both grow up in an environment where they understand their differences and are more accepting of each other.
High school and college sports do not have players with disabilities; however, in my hometown, there is a program I volunteer at called Challenger that made special accommodations for children with CP and other disabilities. These children I volunteer with never got the opportunity to participate in baseball games with other children without disabilities and may have felt they didn’t fit in. I partner with them and aid them in hitting the ball, fielding the ball, and running the bases. On the sidelines, their family and friends can watch and cheer them on, and it is a rewarding feeling to be able to help them play baseball. In this game and environment, they are accepted and have the company of others around them who are going through the same situation and understand them on a personal level.
Cerebral Palsy has no cure and is a lifelong disability; however, there are treatments and ways to lessen pain and live a more successful life, such as something called stem cell therapy. This type of treatment works to replace damaged cells in the brain that are no longer functioning and also to provide support for cells that may be struggling. According to Anahita Kiasatdolatabadi, this therapy can have a significant impact on influencing the loss of motor control, speech control, abnormal muscle tone, and cognitive problems and help them gain control back (2017). According to the Cerebral Palsy Guide, there is no set life expectancy because it varies for each person depending on the severity of the disorder and the medical issues that come along with it (Colver, Fairhurst, & Pharoah, 2014). Most people can live until they are seventy years old. There has been a lot of research and clinical trials done in the past, and doctors continue researching the present therapy day to find ways to improve it and make life easier for people with CP.
Cerebral Palsy consists of many different types and looks different for everyone who has it. It can do a lot of damage to a person physically and mentally and completely diminish the quality of their lives. It affects way too many people in society today, and luckily, doctors and scientists have found ways to help improve a person’s quality of life while living with this disability. Every child growing up, and every adult deserves to enjoy their lives and know that they have help from people and resources around them.
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