Using the Power of the Brain to Change Itself
Wednesday, Oct. 2 was World Cerebral Palsy Day.
World CP Day is a global innovation project to change the world for people living with cerebral palsy and their families.
Using the Power of the Brain to Change Itself
Wednesday, Oct. 2 was World Cerebral Palsy Day.
World CP Day is a global innovation project to change the world for people living with cerebral palsy and their families. It is designed to gather ideas from people around the world and make the best of those ideas a reality.
Did you know that there are 17 million people living with cerebral palsy worldwide? "Another 350 million people are closely connected to a child or adult with cerebral palsy. It is the most common physical disability in childhood." (See the World CP Day infographic.)
The diagnosis of cerebral palsy can manifest in different ways. For example, certain muscle groups can be very spastic or perhaps do not have enough tone to them, or sometimes there are involuntary muscle movements (called Athetoid cerebral palsy). However it manifests, for the most part, cerebral palsy is a movement organization disorder.
For many years, the main focus in trying to help people with cerebral palsy to do better has been to focus on their muscles. Treatments include stretching the muscles when they are spastic and short, stimulating them when they are not working powerfully enough, or implementing other direct mechanical interventions. (While it has been known for many years that cerebr