First Name:

Last Name:

Telephone:

Email:

Address:

City:

State:

Zipcode:

Incident Details:

Yes, I would like to receive
the Morgan & Morgan newsletter.

form base
Home » Consumer Information » Medical Malpractice » Birth Injury » Cerebral Palsy

Symptoms of Cerebral Palsy

Besides lack of muscle control in the arms and legs (e.g., quadriplegia, hemiplegia, diplegia), someone with cerebral palsy also has difficulty with facial motor functions, suffers from a learning disability, and/or experiences seizures.

Talking and eating

Similar to the way in which cerebral palsy affects the mobility of a person's extremities, it also can restrict control of the muscles that move their mouth, face, and head. In turn, it causes problems in terms of verbal communication and chewing and swallowing food. If you've ever met someone with cerebral palsy, you may have noticed that their speech is slurred or they have difficulty uttering just a few words at a time; cerebral palsy delays the action of a person's lips, jaw, and tongue. Another essential aspect to speaking, breath control, may also be abnormal and causing an odd speaking cadence as a result.

The speech impediment that cerebral palsy inflicts upon most children is called dysarthria. Dysarthria makes it difficult for a patient to manage the muscles required to speak. Their speech pattern may be very deliberate and garbled, and the lack of muscle control can contribute to an assortment of distorted facial expressions while they talk. Depending on the amount of airflow through the nostrils, the sound of a cerebral palsy patient's voice may be hypernasal (too much air intake) or hyponasal (too little air intake).

If you encounter someone with cerebral palsy who has difficulty speaking, do not hesitate to let them know if you cannot understand them. Most people would rather have you request that they repeat themselves, or even write or point a finger, than assume that you were able to comprehend.

Learning disability

Between a quarter and half of children with cerebral palsy also have problems learning. It may be limited to only a couple subjects in school, or it can be as severe as mental retardation where the learning curve is at a reduced rate. The scale of mental retardation is broad enough that someone with mild mental retardation may still learn read, write, and do arithmetic, but someone with a more serious case will likely not. This, however, does not mean that children with severe mental retardation are incapable being taught. They simply just do not have the capacity to learn as quickly as others and must be enrolled in special education classes.

Seizures

Approximately 50 percent of children with cerebral palsy suffer from seizures, which are caused by irregular brain activity that interrupts whatever else going on at the time. This quirky activity often occurs in the same area of the brain where the damage originated that caused cerebral palsy. Your brain continuously sends involuntary messages to your body that tell it when to breathe, pump blood, etc. When these messages are accompanied by additional messages that your body is not used to receiving, you react by having a seizure. During a seizure, someone may stare blankly and stop moving, or they may lose control of their body and collapse to the ground. Some people also shake violently while having a seizure. Seizures can last anywhere from seconds to minutes and are typically not detrimental to your health. Many children are prescribed medication to prevent seizures from occurring or at least reduce the number of occurrences.

Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho
Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi
Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina Ohio Oklahoma Oregon
Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming