Common functional impairments in pediatric cerebral palsy

  Pediatric cerebral palsy, referred to as cerebral palsy, is a clinical syndrome characterized by non-progressive central motor deficits and postural abnormalities caused by an injury or lesion that results in impaired brain development before birth, at birth, or within one month after birth. The manifestations of paresis vary depending on the site and degree of injury.  Cerebral palsy not only affects the physical development of the child, but also affects the child’s ability, personality, cognition, and relationship with family and society, and it is one of the major disabilities of children. Cerebral palsy rehabilitation is to help children with cerebral palsy to acquire or learn new motor functions and the ability to take care of themselves.  The common dysfunctions of pediatric cerebral palsy include: 1. abnormal muscle tone, which can be manifested as hypertonia, hypotonia, or alternating hypertonia and hypotonia; 2. abnormal reflexes, which can be manifested as the presence of primitive reflexes, abnormal hyperactivity of postural reflexes, and incompetence of the righting and balancing reflexes, resulting in abnormal regulation of normal somatic reflexes and loss of postural reflex regulation in movement, which hinders the completion of functional movement;  3, active motor ability is reduced, the child loses the ability to move at will and control, involuntary, non-functional tachycardia occurs, coarse, abnormal movement patterns replace coordinated, fine separation activities. Motor development is delayed, such as inability to roll over, crawl, sit and stand, and walk. In addition, children with cerebral palsy have varying degrees of decreased ability in activities of daily living such as eating and dressing, recreational activities such as playing with toys and games, and learning activities such as reading and writing and manipulating objects.