Cerebral palsy types

The cerebral palsy has so many different causes and there is no surprise that it has many forms. The severity of disabilities of cerebral palsy patients depend upon the affected area and the severity of the damage happened to the brain.

Each person with cerebral palsy has unique characteristics, but it is likely to be classified as a particular type of cerebral palsy. It can be classified according to the type of disorders for movement and posture or by the number of affected limbs.

Spasticity is a cerebral palsy type, which represents the non-flexible muscles due to which the person fails to do the daily routines. About seventy to eighty percent of cerebral palsy patients have spasticity. If Spasticity affects both the legs, it is called spastic diplegia. With this the affected person will not be able to move from one place to another.

The rigidness of the muscles at the hip and the leg causes the legs to turn awkward at the knees losing balance to step forward or backward. Spastic hemiplegia refers to the disability on one side of the body, where the arms will get affected severely than the legs.

Spastic quadriplegia is the most severe condition of spasticity that affects all the four limbs and trunk and it sometimes affects the muscles managing the mouth and tongue. The children with spastic quadriplegia often have mental handicap and relevant problems.

Athetoid cerebral palsy is another cerebral palsy type, which is found in 10 to 20 percent of cerebral palsy affected children. The athetoid form of cerebral palsy will affect the entire body of the patient.
The characteristics of athetoid cerebral palsy are the fluctuations in muscle nature (rigid or too loose) and occasionally it is associated with unbalanced movements (slow and jerky).

The athetoid cerebral palsy affected children will have trouble to control their body well enough to sit, stand, and walk. Sometimes the muscles of the face will also be affected, by which they will be having difficulties in eating, sucking, swallowing and speaking.

The other cerebral palsy type is ataxic cerebral palsy, which is shown around 5 to 10 percent of cerebral palsy affected individuals.

The ataxic cerebral palsy type affects the balance and coordination of muscles in legs and hands. The affected cannot walk steadily and they have trouble in hand controls for handling objects and writing, which requires precise muscle co-ordination.

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