Growing up with Cerebral Palsy I often wondered if I would ever experience my happily ever after. The fairytales my mom read me always followed the life of a beautiful princess falling in love with a handsome prince. You never read about a prince and princess in wheelchairs or with any type of disability for that matter.
Cohort-based whole exome and whole genome sequencing and copy number variant (CNV) studies have identified genetic etiologies for a sizable proportion of patients with cerebral palsy (CP). These findings indicate that genetic mutations collectively comprise an important cause of CP.
An international study recently published in the journal Nature Genetics has provided the first firm evidence that for a substantial number of people, their cerebral palsy (CP) may be caused by a genetic mutation, or mis-spelling in the body’s DNA blueprint.
"In addition to commonly associated environmental factors, genomic factors may cause cerebral palsy. We performed whole-exome sequencing of 250 parent–offspring trios, and observed enrichment of damaging de novo mutations in cerebral palsy cases."
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.
Everybody tells stories, and that includes people who use communication systems. To ensure success and the ability to participate we need to make it as easy as possible. So that we can tell stories whenever we want, wherever we want, to whomever we want, and in a really easy way, so we can be successful.
Upper limb therapies and interventions have been well studied in cerebral palsy. Different interventions that have good evidence are Constraint Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT) and Bimanual Therapy. CIMT has been shown to be successful in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy (CP). CIMT uses a splint to physically constrain the uninvolved arm and encourage them to use the more involved or affected arm.