Skip to main content
Submitted by PatientsEngage on 16 April 2015

As we wait for Kalki Koechlin’s portrayal of a gutsy girl with Cerebral Palsy in the award-winning film Margarita with a Straw, we find out more about the condition from rehabilitation specialist Lakshmi Gopalakrishnan. The film releases on 17th April 2015. 

Cerebral Palsy is a birth-related disorder that affects the brain and nervous system. The nerve damage causes difficulties in the child’s movement, coordination, posture and ability to walk. It can also affect speech, cognitive ability, vision, and cause epilepsy. 

What causes Cerebral Palsy (CP)?

Cerebral palsy results from damage to certain parts of the developing brain. This damage can occur early in pregnancy when the brain is just starting to form/ during the birth process as the child passes through the birth canal / after birth in the first few years of life. 

In many cases, the exact cause of the brain damage is never known.

Prenatal (before birth): At least 70-80% of cases of cerebral palsy begin before birth. 

It can be caused by:

• Infections in the mother -German measles, other infections

• Accident /trauma

• Smoking, alchohol, drugs 

• Amniotic fluid disorders (less than 300 ml or more than 2 litres of amniotic fluid are known to cause disorders)

• Umbilical cord around neck

• Insufficient placenta

• Multiple pregnancy

Perinatal (during birth)

• Premature birth

• Prolonged labour

• Forceps delivery

• Lack of oxygen

Post natal (after birth) 

• Severe jaundice

• Seizures

• Meningitis/Encephalitis 

• Low sugar

• Head injury

Cerebral Palsy is NOT 

• Contagious

• Progressive

• Usually hereditary

• Primary cause of death

Types of CP

Muscle tone is the amount of tension or resistance-to-movement in a muscle. Muscle tone is what helps us to keep our bodies in a certain position or posture. Changes in muscle tone are what enable us to move. The brain damage in CP directly affects the muscle tone.

According to the effect on the child’s muscle tone, CP can be classified as follows:

 Spastic-Tense, tight muscles (most common type of C.P). High muscle tone.

  Hypotonic-Floppy; low muscle tone.

  Athetoid - Constant, uncontrolled (involuntary) motion of limbs, head, eyes. Muscle tone fluctuates from high to low. 

 Ataxia - Poor balance, often causing falls and stumbles. Walks with wide based gait. (Low muscle tone)

  Mixed – Spastic-athetoid. 

What is the treatment for children with CP? Can CP be cured?

Drugs and surgery cannot cure this condition. A child with CP will become an adult with CP.

Early detection and training is vital. Early intervention of a child with cerebral palsy focuses on speech, movement and education. This is carried out by Physiotherapists, Occupational and Speech Therapists and Special Educators. 

Medication is used sometimes to treat very spastic muscles (anti-spastic drugs) and to treat seizures (anti-epileptic drugs).

If the muscles get contracted (fixed in a position), surgery is performed to release the muscle, followed by physiotherapy.

Walking aids, mobility aids and orthoses are often used. Ex: Wheel chairs, walkers, sticks, knee and arm braces, special shoes, special furniture etc.

Life with CP

With the right kind of support from family, professionals and the community, a person with CP can lead a fulfilling life; he can attend a mainstream school, college and take a suitable job in an office/pursue a profession; he can learn a skill and use it professionally; he can have as many choices as any other person without Cerebral Palsy.

The Rights of Persons with Cerebral Palsy are the same as that of any other person. 

For example Right to Life with Dignity, Right to Information & Communication, Right to recreation, Right to Education, Right to Mobility, Right to Health, Right to Family Life and so on. 

For stories of young people with CP, who attended Vidya Sagar, an NGO in Chennai working with people with neurological impairments, visit http://www.vidyasagar.co.in/alumni/#/Profile

Pic of Lakshmi with Abhishek who now works for an NGO raising funds for people with communicable diseases

Lakshmi Gopalakrishnan is a Special Educator and Rehabilitation specialist with 17 years of experience in the field of disability. She worked at Vidya Sagar, an NGO that provides services for people with neurological impairments, Public Health Centre and Children's Hospital, Chennai. She lectures on disability and psychology.

 

Condition

Stories

  • Webinar: Epilepsy Is More Than Seizures
    8th February was International Epilepsy Day and this year since the theme is "More than seizures", we focus on how it affects children, schooling, adolescence, learning, marriage, pregnancy and more Our panelists were Dr. Pradnya Gadgil - Consultant Pediatric Neurologist, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital Yashoda Wakankar - Neuro counsellor and person with Epilepsy We covered a wide range of topics  02:20 What is epilepsy 04:40 Not all seizures are epilepsy 06:35 Onset of epilepsy…
  • 6 Most Important Documents Needed For A Child With Special Needs!
    Chitra lyer, a Special Needs Parent and a Trustee at Forum for Autism on the documents required to ensure that the child with special needs is well looked after.   The first step is to know exactly which documents are essential, the legal actions needed to protect your child and the correct steps to secure your child’s financial future. Without these, you will always wonder if your Child’s future is secure and whether you will be able to protect him/her legally and financially,…
  • Lockdown Agonies for Adolescents with Special Needs
    Alisha Lalljee, Special Educator and Counselling Psychotherapist, feels teenagers with special needs have been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown as they struggle with schedule disruptions, discontinuation of therapies and issues of anxiety and sometimes aggression. Young adolescents and teenagers with special needs and disabilities have been affected severely by the Covid-19 lockdown. They are in a frazzled state – aware of coronavirus, though not always fully understanding the…
  • We Have Come To This World with a Purpose
    Avelino de Sa, from Goa, who was born with cerebral palsy, was predicted to live only for five years. But determination shows us that everything is possible, despite setbacks. Today, at 47, he is inspiring others with disability to push themselves to the limit. Please could you tell us a bit about your condition? I was born with cerebral palsy which is a disability caused due to brain damage to that part of the brain which affects the muscles and movements of the body. How was your childhood?…
  • Upcoming Webinar: My Choices, My Personality
    Join us tomorrow Saturday 12th October 2019 for an insightful session where we discuss the role of personal choices in shaping personalities and self assertion among persons with disabilities. How did their families support  push the barriers to become independent and create possibilities? Topic Choices and decision making builds self esteem and shape personalities of people. Persons with disability are no different. They have the right to make life choices. Irrespective of the type…
  • Are Dads Of Special Needs Children Getting More Involved in Parenting?
    Gopinath Ramakrishnan, Co-Founder and Managing Trustee of Special Child Assistance Network (SCAN), a support group for families of special needs children, reflects on the involvement of Dads in parenting.  When we started the parent support group Special Child Assistance Network (SCAN) in Chennai back in 2015, it was mostly a women and children group. Yes, there were a couple of us dads hanging around, but it was by and large comprised of, and driven by the moms. In fact, the WhatsApp…
  • A mother and her autistic son both wearing white and standing against a book shelf
    Indian Children’s Literature Featuring Characters with Disability
    Children's books are instrumental in shaping early thoughts and perceptions. Chitra Paul, mom to a teenager on the autism spectrum painstakingly lists 20 Indian books that feature children and young adults with disability. Books that must be read by every child. As a child I don’t remember reading very many books with Indian characters or even those that featured disabled characters. The few books with Indian characters or stories about India were those by Ruskin Bond or Amar Chitra Katha comic…
  • Open Therapy Doors For A Safer Future Of Your Children
    On World Human Rights Day and the day after World Patient Safety Day, TogetherWeCan and PatientsEngage would like to bring the focus on safety of children at therapy centres. Despite an ongoing petition in Kerala since 2015, progress has been slow. Why is a child's right to safety not a priority? In light of a couple of recent incidents, we bring you an update on the petition on therapy centre regulation by Seema Lal.  In October 2018 the following incident happened in a government therapy…
  • A child in a red tshirt holding a baby doll and stretching a hand out to block. The stretched hand covers the face
    Protecting Children With Disabilities from Sexual Abuse
    Personal safety and sexuality education is critical for children and young individuals with Intellectual disabilities, auditory or visual impairments. But it often does not get the right level of attention from parents and teachers. Enfold Proactive Health Trust, a Bangalore based NGO, has devised a project ‘Suvidha’ to address this gap. Read on. All children, irrespective of the ‘normalcy’ of their neural or physical development, have a right to safety and dignity. Personal safety education…
  • 3 young men including Sriram and Sunder at work in the factory
    Empowered, Independent Twin Entrepreneurs with Cerebral Palsy Make A Greener World
    Sunder and Sriram are twins who were diagnosed with cerebral palsy when they were just 6 months old and who now run Twin Twigs, an eco-friendly business initiative. Ramesh and Radha are their enterprising and supportive parents. The twins and their parents talk to PatientsEngage about this exciting endeavor with the dual goal of creating employment for disabled persons like themselves and making our world plastic-free via a sustainable green model. Sriram and Sunder respond to questions by…