| The
human brain is made of 3 main parts, the cerebrum which accounts
for 85% of the brain, the cerebellum and the main stem. The
cerebrum is responsible for the voluntary movements of the
muscles, thinking, communication and is also associated with
the senses of touch, sight etc..
Damage to the cerebrum causes
problems and the nomenclature attached to these problems is
" cerebral Palsy". "Cerebral" means brain
and "Palsy" refers to problem in muscle movement
It is essentially associated with children and affects them
in different ways. Some children could have severe muscular
problems while others might encounter learning problems while
still others might encounter speech problems.
Before
the late 19th century there was no written documentation about
cerebral palsy. A surgeon named William Little was the first
who medically document this rather enigmatic disorder. He
noticed that children in the first years of life encountered
great difficulty in walking, crawling or holding objects.
Initially called Little's disease, it is now called spastic
diplegia and is grouped under the term "cerebral Palsy".
S
ince this problem was in many cases an offshoot of complicated
deliveries, the surgeon concluded that oxygen shortage during
birth was in someway responsible for damage of brain tissues,
which controlled movement.
However,
Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis pointed out that
other problems like seizures, or mental retardation could
not be explained by Little"s theory. He suggested that
the problem was deep seated and could be a result of improper
brain development.
For a long time this was not accepted,
but later on the idea that defective development of the brain
was connected with "cerebral palsy" caught on. Cerebral
Palsy can be caused before birth, during birth or after birth.
It can be categorized into 3 main types.
Spastic cerebral
palsy-- where movement and flexibility are drastically affected
because of muscle stiffness, Athetoid or dyskinetic cerebral
palsy, which affects speech and hearing due to an involuntary
stiffening of the muscles and Ataxic cerebral palsy, which
affects balance and coordination.
Hence
all Children who have cerebral palsy are not affected in
the same way. The degree of disability could vary and the
type of cerebral palsy the child is suffering from could
also vary.
Although motor control is affected in many children,
their level of intelligence can be still be pretty high.
They have sound minds but rebellious bodies and it is unfortunate
but true that they are often mistreated by society. Therapy,
support equipment, and medical intervention have gone a
long way in aiding people with this disability.
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