CEREBRAL PALSY LAWYER ATTORNEY
Cerebral palsy, also called Little’s disease or static
encephalopathy, is a group of chronic disorders impairing
control of movement that appear in the first few years of
life. Cerebral palsy was first noticed in children in the
first years of their lives back in 1860. An English surgeon
named William Little wrote about an unknown disorder that
caused stiff, spastic muscles in their legs and their arms.
The children with the observed difficulties did not get
any better or any worse as they aged. That documented condition
was called Little for many years but is now known as spastic
diplegia, a form of cerebral palsy.
Cerebral palsy was thought to be the result of a lack of
oxygen during birth. Other suggestions continued to surface
because the children with the cerebral palsy had other problems
like mental retardation, visual disturbances, and seizures.
Until the 1980’s it was still believed that birth complications
caused most cases of cerebral palsy until scientists analyzed
data from a government study and found that less than 10%
of the cerebral palsy births were due to birth complications.
Cerebral palsy affects the nerves that regulate and control
the body’s muscles. The literal meaning of the word
cerebral is the brain’s two halves and palsy describes
any disorder that impairs control of body movement. When
there is faulty development or damage to motor areas, as
in cerebral palsy, it disrupts the brain’s ability
to control movement and posture sufficiently.
People with cerebral palsy must endure extremely difficult
medical, social, and educational development. There are
four main categories of cerebral palsy, including spastic
cerebral palsy, athetoid cerebral palsy, ataxic cerebral
palsy, and mixed cerebral palsy.
