Neuromotor Impairments: Orthopedic Analysis

Neuromotor Impairments, under Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), is one of the divisions that fall under the category of orthopedic impairment, others being degenerative diseases and musculoskeletal disorder (Gargiulo, 2015, p. 495). Neuromotor impairments are abnormalities of the central nervous system which includes brain and spinal cord or the ability of descending-nervous-tracts from the brain or spinal cord to innervate the muscles of the body. These impairments are congenital (present at or before birth) and severely impair coordination of limb movements, urinary control and proper alignment of the spinal cord and vertebrae. It is however quite possible that individuals with neuromotor impairments have additional impairments

One of the major motor diagnostic characteristics of this type of cerebral palsy is the involuntary, uncontrolled, bizarre and purposeless movements (athetosis) which may increase with excitement while solving a mental problem or during the performance of voluntary movement. The important point to note is that these movements are present at rest. These children have abnormal posture especially abnormal standing postures involve leaning the body backward while extending the hip, is very characteristic (Levitt, 2011, p. 9). When these individuals try to stand, it is hard for them to maintain weight on their feet so as part of their compensatory mechanism they withdraw their feet upward and outward which can be characterized as an “athetoid dance”. Ataxic cerebral palsy is usually characterized by the disturbance of balance, which includes poor stabilization of the upper body and pelvic girdles. More individuals with this type or cerebral palsy have excessive balance saving reactions in order to overcompensate for their poor balance. Voluntary movement in these children are uncoordinated and the overreaching and underreaching are diagnostically characteristic (Levitt, 2011, p.

Infants that are born before thirty-seventh week (premature infants) of pregnancy are preterm and are at a much higher risk of complications that result from the brain damage. Medical literature consists of a variety of other factors that may contribute towards neural damage, for example, abnormal development of the brain, anoxia (absence of oxygen) in the near-drowning situation, excessive neonatal asphyxia (refers to the situations when oxygen is absent for long periods of time or the presence of excess carbon dioxide which can cause tissue damage in the body), choking abuse, intracranial bleeding (excess blood in the skill pushing against brain tissue causing severe trauma), pregnancy related complications, neurotrophic virus (viruses that are capable of entering nervous system and infecting brain tissue, brain trauma and various other infectious agents (Levitt, 2011, p. 3). It has been suggested that the neuronal descending pathway from the brain, rubrospinal tract (RST) which normally mediated voluntary movement control, imperfectly overcompensates when the corticospinal tract (CST), which is the primary motor descending pathway, is damaged or injured (Cahill-Rowley & Rose, 2013). It is often possible that the cause is not certain, and in most cases knowing the cause and history of the individual with cerebral palsy may not be helpful for the physician or the