Understanding CP

What is cerebral palsy?

Cerebral is another word for the brain. Palsy means a complete or partial loss of the ability to move a body part. So cerebral palsy means loss of ability to move a body part because of a problem with the brain.

Cerebral palsy is not a single condition. It is an umbrella term used to describe a group of conditions that cause movement problems. Although the main problem is with the muscles in one or more parts of the body, the condition is caused by damage or faulty development in a part of the brain. The part of the brain affected is that which sends messages to muscles. It controls movement and co-ordination. The damage or faulty development usually occurs as a baby is developing in the womb. Sometimes it occurs during, or shortly after, birth.

If someone has cerebral palsy, it means that they are not able to control some of the muscles in their body in the normal way. Depending on the type of cerebral palsy and the area of brain affected, a child may not be able to walk, move, talk, eat, or play in the same ways as other children.

What are the main types of cerebral palsy?

Cerebral palsy is classified into four main types - spastic, athetoid, ataxic and mixed. The type of cerebral palsy that occurs depends on the exact part of the brain that is affected.

Spastic cerebral palsy

This type of cerebral palsy occurs in about 7 in 10 cases. Spastic means that the affected muscles are more stiff than normal. How stiff an affected arm or leg is, can vary greatly from case to case. Movements of an affected arm or leg are stiff and jerky. Some muscles may become permanently shortened and stiff. This is called contracted.

There are different words that are used to describe the type of types of spastic cerebral palsy. For example:

• Hemiplegia - means that the leg and arm of one side of the body are affected.
• Diplegia - means that both legs are affected. Arms are not affected or are only mildly affected.
• Quadriplegia - means that both arms and legs are affected. Arms are equally or more affected than legs.

Sophie has Spastic Diplegia CP...so the part of her brain that was damaged as a result of her premature birth and the risk factors surrounding a multiple birth and being of a lower birth weight, means that not all the right signals are being sent to her legs and mildly in her arms to work in the way they should. This means the muscles in her legs are constantly very stiff resulting in poorer mobility with her gross motor skills and on a whole making getting around alot more of a challenge.

Below is a link to a video to understanding CP a little more...
http://youtu.be/p5VNdy7_nIM