How Does One Detect Cerebral Palsy?
Cerebral palsy is not a single disease but rather an umbrella term for a group of disorders that interfere with the ability to coordinate body movements. The signs of these disorders may be present at birth, but cerebral palsy is usually not definitively diagnosed until age 1 or 2. Caused by damage to the brain before birth or in the early developmental stages of a child's life, CP has no cure and is most likely to occur in children who were born prematurely or with low birth weights.
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Signs and Symptoms
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MedlinePlus suggests that parents be alert for any signs that their infants are slower than normal "to roll over, sit, crawl, smile or walk." Failure to reach certain developmental benchmarks is not conclusive proof of CP but simply a warning sign that some problem may be present. Other symptoms, according to MayoClinic.com, include tremors; excessive drooling; stiff muscles; lack of muscle coordination; an asymetrical gait, marked by the dragging of one foot or leg; and noticeable difficulty in performing precision actions, such as tying shoes or writing. To confirm a diagnosis of CP, your doctor or pediatrician is likely to use a variety of tests, as discussed below.
Brain Scans
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The root cause of CP disorders is damage to the brain (through injury or infection), making it critically important to get a closer look at the brain of a child in whom CP is suspected. There are three such tests---cranial ultrasound, CT scan and MRI scan---that provide images of the brain. The cranial ultrasound is easily the least intrusive of the three, but its images of the brain are not nearly as good as those obtained through CT and MRI scans.
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Reflex Testing
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Your pediatrician may test the reflexes of an infant suspected of having CP, according to the Cerebral Palsy Information website. Babies with CP often exhibit certain motor reflexes that disappear in normal children by the time they reach 6 months of age. One such reflex---called the Moro reflex---appears when an infant is placed on his back with his legs in the air. "The baby reflexively reaches up in an embracing gesture," the website says. If this occurs in a child over the age of 6 months, there is a good chance the child has CP.
Hand Preference
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While most infants don't show any hand preference until they are at least a year old, those with CP may exhibit such a preference as early as 6 months. This is particularly true of children with spastic hemiplegia, a form of CP in which one side of the body is significantly weaker than the other.
Other Tests
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Other diagnostic tests may include an electroencephalogram (EEG), which measures electrical activity in the brain and can detect abnormalities in brain function; blood tests; vision, hearing and/or intelligence tests; and an analysis of your child's gait by an orthopedic specialist.
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