Research Paper On Cerebral Palsy

Introduction

Cerebral palsy is a life-long static physical disability that doesn’t worsen, nor get better over time. Cerebral palsy is an umbrella term that covers a few different types of CP. Cerebral palsy has many great affects on one’s physical development such as muscle tone, movement, coordination, control, balance, gross/fine motor functions and oral motor functions in ways to make a person’s life more difficult.

Causes Of Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral palsy is caused by damage to the brain either before, during or shortly after birth. About 70% of cerebral palsy cases are caused by prenatal injuries, and is the most common lead to CP. 20% are caused by injuries durning birth and the left over 10% are caused by injuries after birth. (What

70% of CP cases have spastic cerebral palsy which is the most common type and is caused by damage to the brain’s motor cortex. Spastic cerebral palsy can affect either one side of the body, commonly known as spastic hemiplegia, or both sides of the body. Spastic diplegia causes stiffness mostly in the legs, the arms may be affected, but not as severely. (Spastic Cerebral Palsy.., n.d, p.1) Both of these types involves stiff movements that are exaggerated, caused by increased muscle tone. It causes difficulty preforming tasks such as getting dressed, walking and handling objects. Paralysis may occur if the form is serve enough.(Types of Cerebral Palsy, 2018,

Muscles in the jaw and tongue, required for proper speech and oral movements can be impacted by cerebral palsy which can cause difficulty talking, drooling, chewing and even breathing. Depending on the type of cerebral palsy you have, there are different impairments involving speech. People with spastic cerebral palsy have slow and tend to struggle with oral movements that require a lot of effort. Athetoid cerebral palsy cases have difficulty controlling their face movements. They cannot control their movements that their face makes and vocal cords, this results in random sounds and mumbling. These cases also have trouble with drooling, chewing and eating. People with ataxic cerebral palsy usually take pauses in-between sentences and words and have difficulty swallowing. (Benefits of Speech…., n.d, p. 1) Speech needs proper intellectual and physical abilities. Although cerebral palsy is known for greatly impacting physical development, it can also impact you intellectually. Aphasia is the loss of partial verbal expression, making pronouncing words more difficult. Dysarthria is abnormalities of facial muscle tone which makes it harder to make and control facial movements. (Speech and Language…., n.d, p. 1). These conditions can all be apart of the symptoms and affects of cerebral