The findings of this article demonstrate the need for improved screening rates in women with CP, and highlight areas for improving their screening experience.
As 20% of women with CP surveyed experienced pregnancy, there is a need to increase awareness, education, support, and advocacy for achievement of optimal reproductive health.
Weight, height and body composition are important indicators for development. The tools used to measure these can be different for children with cerebral palsy.
Children with cerebral palsy (CP) often grow poorly and assessment of growth in this population is further complicated by two main difficulties. Firstly, children may have joint contractures, muscular weakness, scoliosis, and/or involuntary movements that make standing or lying straight difficult, if not impossible.
It would be an understatement to say that the last few weeks have been unprecedentedly difficult. Some of you might feel hopeless, some fearful, and some defeated. However, it’s times like this that we must muster up our strength and forge forward.
Saturdays were special as a kid growing up in Port Washington, New York. Saturdays meant Burger King outings with my grandparents, a great big slice of trade-marked Hershey’s chocolate pie for me and piping hot oatmeal for them. And we can’t forget about the Kids Meal toys. But on this particular Saturday, everything was different - at the tender age of five, I started to notice that certain aspects of my life were just off.
One of the hardest moments during quarantine for me was when my apartment building announced its gym was closing to prevent the spread of coronavirus. As the outside gyms closed all around the city in the weeks prior, I felt grateful that the one in my building was open. The gym was the lasting lifeline to my sanity, and to have that yanked away from me, I felt lost.
I don’t know if this is just me, but my time in quarantine has made me have weird flashbacks to my childhood. As a kid growing up with CP, especially with a speech impediment and mobility limitations, my lifeline to making and keeping friends was through AIM (AOL Instant Messenger, for those of you who are too young to remember) and one of the first video chatting platforms, ooVoo. Fast forward 15 years, many of us are in a similar situation. To slow the spread of COVID-19, most of life has moved online, including friendships.
If you’re a history nerd like me, then you probably wondered about the origin of cerebral palsy at least once in your life. As an ever-inquisitive kid, that was certainly at the forefront of my mind, especially when I was old enough to truly comprehend that I had CP.
As I progress in my career as a journalist and writer, the more attention and followers I receive on social media. Every so often, I receive a direct message or email from young readers, explaining how I’ve become a role model for them. They express the inspiration they gain from witnessing me not allowing my cerebral palsy get in the way of following my dreams. It was then that I realized I am now the role model that I desperately needed when I was a young girl.
If you have any disability, then you probably have pondered on this question once, or ten times, before: should I self-disclose my disability on the job application form? Unlike going into the job interview, where your visible disability cannot be concealed, the power lies ultimately in you to check that box on the form.
When I was considering going on birth control a few years ago, I wanted to find out how, if at all, my cerebral palsy would cause certain side effects. However, to my dismay, there weren’t any resources available that addressed the complexities a woman with cerebral palsy might encounter when going on any form of birth control.
There is insufficient research on adults living with cerebral palsy, (as referenced in my previous blog post on cerebral palsy and adulthood). Although there is a paucity of studies examining mental health in this population, medical researchers have speculated that the rate of depression is three to four times higher in people with disabilities such as CP than it is in the general population.
I’m at that age when Facebook friends begin to get engaged and married, and shortly after, have children. So, I feel the pressure to proceed onto the next stage of my adulthood. But, as anyone with cerebral palsy knows, everything in life is a tad more complicated with this disability.
Individuals with Cerebral Palsy and other disabilities have diverse sexual identities as well. Learning from each other's experiences can lead to honest conversations and acceptance.
Family planning is an important aspect of many individual's lives, yet those with Cerebral Palsy have often been left out of the conversation.
When we have a physical disability, our bones can get a bit weak or osteoporotic. Something that can be improved is promoting bone health for people with cerebral palsy.
Exploration for an infant means discovering anything about that environment. If that infant needs an opportunity to be brought to them, that's okay. Let an infant explore through their senses, whether it's touch, or smell, or taste, or sight, or hearing.
Cerebral palsy is an injury to the brain, but what we find is that it has a lot of effects on how you use your muscles.
Let me tell you about multimodal communication. We, as typical communicators, all use many different strategies. We use speech, gestures, facial expressions, technology, and no-tech solutions. As communicators, we all size up the situation based upon our communication partners, the context, the environment and then we choose to use the most effective communication strategy.
When treating a child with CP, part of a pediatrician’s job is assessing and treating children with abnormal tone difficulties, as well as other muscular-skeletal problems. From around the age of two years, kids start to develop difficulties with muscle tone that can have an impact on their hip development.
"Cerebral palsy is primarily a motor impairment so it's really important to look at what the child’s motor function is. Are they developing on the trajectory of a child who has cerebral palsy or are they developing as we would expect a baby to develop? "
For a child with CP learning to move, the really important things to remember are that the child should always be active.
To give you an idea about genetic variation between each of us, there are about three million differences in our genetic code. They go to influence the color of our hair and the color of our eyes, the way we walk.
