Children with cerebral palsy need to be constantly monitored. As they grow, their needs change and new problems surface. In adolescence, the focus is on neurological abilities, how to overcome the deformities that they have and what kind of education they require.

This is determined by many factors---the environment in which they live, the kind of motor problems they have and the most important factor-the economic status of the family. As they grow older, the kind of independence that they need to be given becomes vital but suitable employment is hard to come by. This becomes even more difficult in developing countries where resources are limited and cost of upkeep high.

It is very difficult to really identify how many people have been afflicted with this problem. Surveys conducted are not exhaustive and for every case of cerebral palsy that is identified there are many that are not. In fact many surveys do not include people who have mild or moderate disabilities. Some surveys indicate that 2% of the total population in India has visual, communication and loco-motor disabilities.

Almost 4% of all children between the ages 0-14 exhibit developmental delay and here too the focus is only on children with learning disabilities. At least 5-10% of the general population is beset with mental disorders of varying degree.

A study conducted in Southwest Germany and Western Sweden indicates that in children with cerebral palsy, almost 80% of the cases were attributed to prenatal factors, 20% due to factors occurring during birth or during the first few weeks of life. Generally speaking however, it is very difficult to identify as to when the brain damage occurred -during embryonic development, during birth or after birth. Studies indicate that 2-2.5% per thousand people suffer from cerebral palsy. This is roughly the situation even in the United States.

The most common disability associated with cerebral palsy is Spasticity. This can occur equally in normal birth weight infants and in low birth weight infants. In both the cases, prenatal factors appear to be the cause.

This however does not rule out neo-natal causes. As a result of all the studies conducted, research is being conducted to identify the causes of low birth and prematurity in infants. This might to some extent help reduce the number of children who suffer from cerebral palsy.