Occupational Therapy

2. Understanding Cerebral Palsy • The word “cerebral” means relating to the brain, while “palsy” means weakness or problems relating to muscle and its movement. • Cerebral palsy (CP) are a group of conditions that are brought on by faulty brain development, often before to birth. • It is a condition that impairs posture, muscular tone, and/or movement. • Therefore, cerebral palsy affects the part of the brain that controls the ability to move muscles.

3. Types of Cerebral Palsy • Spastic Cerebral Palsy: This is the most common type, affecting almost 80% of the patients. It affects the muscles, making them stiff (spastic), causing exaggerated reflexes and muscle spasms. It often entails walking abnormalities and may sometimes lead to paralysis. • Dyskinetic Cerebral Palsy: This type causes problems in controlling body movements. The muscles either become too tight or too loose. Movements of the arms and legs become involuntary, jerky, or even slow and writhing. This causes difficulty in movements such as sitting, crawling, or walking. In some cases, it may also affect the face and the tongue, making it difficult to frown, eat, or talk. • Ataxic Cerebral Palsy: This is the least common type. This form of cerebral palsy affects the balance and coordination of the person. It affects movements such as walking and fine motor skills such as grasping objects, writing, etc. • Hypotonic Cerebral Palsy: This type greatly reduces the muscles tone, making them overly relaxed and floppy. The weakened muscles make it difficult to sit up straight. Children affected by this type may have trouble breathing, speaking, have poor reflexes or walking abnormalities. Mixed Cerebral Palsy: Some people may experience symptoms of more than one type of cerebral palsy. In most cases, it is a combination of spastic and dyskinetic cerebral palsy.

4. Symptoms of cerebral palsy • Muscle movement disorders such as stiff muscles (spasticity), exaggerated reflexes, tremors, or involuntary jerking movements. • Lack of muscle coordination and balance (ataxia). • Variations in muscle tone, where muscles become too stiff or too floppy. • Difficulty in walking. • Difficulty in the development of fine motor skills such as sitting up, crawling, holding onto and picking up objects. • Delay in speech development.  • Difficulty in eating, excessive drooling, and problems with swallowing. • Delayed growth.  • Intellectual disabilities.  • Neurological problems such as seizures (epilepsy), abnormal touch, or pain sensations, etc. • Bladder and bowel problems. • Mental health issues such as behavioral problems and mental disorders.

5. Causes of Cerebral Palsy Cerebral palsy usually occurs before birth and in some cases, at birth, or early infancy. It is caused due to abnormal brain development, or damage caused to the developing brain • Maternal infections that can occur in the womb, directly affecting the fetus. • Gene mutations that cause problems during brain development and lead to genetic disorders. • Head injuries due to accidents, falling, or child abuse. • Bleeding in the brain (intracranial hemorrhage). • Brain infections leading to inflammation in or around the brain. • Lack of oxygen reaching the brain during labor and delivery. • Severe jaundice in infants.

6. Treatments for cerebral Palsy Although cerebral palsy cannot be cured, a combination of treatments can greatly help the child in achieving a long and healthy life. • Medications, assistive aids, therapy, and surgery can greatly help in managing symptoms, relieving pain, and making the child independent in performing daily chores and activities, thereby improving the quality of life. • Therapies such as Stem Cell Therapy, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, etc. can be included in the treatment program. • Research increasingly suggests that Occupational Therapy is significantly beneficial for children with cerebral palsy in a number of ways.

7. Occupational Therapy and Cerebral Palsy • Occupational Therapy and Cerebral Palsy involves developing one’s ability to perform daily functions and activities.  • CP occupational therapy aims at improving one’s strength, dexterity, and coordination when performing day-to-day activities. It also helps in improving cognitive abilities such as decision-making, problem-solving, reasoning, perception, memory, etc. • In this way, simple day-to-day tasks such as eating, bathing, brushing teeth can be performed with relative ease.

8. Benefits of occupational Therapy Occupational therapy for CP can help with issues in various ways: • Performing everyday tasks independently • Adapting better to abilities • Developing thinking and learning skills • Coping and responding to the demands and challenges of everyday life • Coping with emotions and adapting

9. Techniques and exercises are used in occupational therapy with cerebral palsy • Improving fine motor control: These exercises improve hand dexterity. Simple exercises such as grasping and sorting toys, sorting coins, and making jewelry. • Upper body strength and stability activities: These activities focus on strengthening and stabilizing the trunk and upper body. Simple activities that increase strength and improve balance such as crawling. • Bilateral coordination: This focuses on improving control of both sides of the body at the same time. Activities and movements such as pulling apart constructive toys, catching a ball with two hands, riding a bike, etc.  • Improving visual motor skills: These activities help in improving hand-eye coordination. Activities include drawing, stringing beads, catching and throwing the ball, etc.