How Does Cerebral Palsy Affect The Body?

Cerebral Palsy affects body movement, muscle control, muscle coordination, muscle tone, reflex, posture and balance. Depending on the part of the brain that is injured depends on how someone’s muscle tone will be effected. 

For people with spastic CP they have increased muscle tone because of the part of the brain that's injured. If causes very tight muscles which in turn effects the movement of the joints and of the limbs. 

For others who have dyskinetic CP they lose the ability to have voluntary control over their muscles, and they can have jerky and uncontrolled movement patterns.

There are different interventions that can be including operations. If you are having an operation it is important to define the goals of that operation and the outcomes that you are trying to achieve.

Examples of goals for orthopedic surgery are;

  1. For those who are able to walk, operations are intended to help them walk better so they can participate more and do more of the kinds of things that they would like to do. 

  2. Another set of goals could be to relieve pain or prevent pain from happening in the future

  3. To improve the flexibility of muscles to make children who have very tight muscles more easy to look after, and to improve their mobility, and ultimately to have a positive impact on their quality of life. 

A child with cerebral palsy can have problems related to their cerebral palsy, which can have an impact on their quality of life, and that's where we can try and make a difference. How we talk or think about cerebral palsy can make a big difference in how other people think and talk about cerebral palsy.

"How we talk or think about cerebral palsy can make a big difference in how other people think and talk about cerebral palsy."