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An Overview of Cerebral Palsy Part Two

When Your Child Has Celebral Palsy

By Kelly D. Burgess

One of the first questions Jimmy Kennedy's dad asked the doctor when his son was diagnosed with cerebral palsy was, "Will he be able to play golf?"

Jimmy was only 18 months old at the time, but now, at age 10, Jimmy does play golf. He also wrestles and hardly seems to be any different from other kids his age. But his mother, Marie Kennedy, of Indianapolis, Ind., didn't know what his long-term abilities would be when she first found out about his cerebral palsy.

"Jimmy's case is mild to moderate, leaning more to the mild side, but when he was first diagnosed I didn't know anything about it and thought this was something that would just get worse," says Kennedy. "He was already talking, and my biggest fear was that he'd end up in a wheelchair unable to talk or walk."

Kennedy, who went on to write My Perfect Son Has Cerebral Palsy (Authorhouse, 2001), quickly learned a lot about cerebral palsy, including the fact that it doesn't get worse and that, with the proper management, its symptoms can often improve over time.

Cerebral palsy is actually a catch-all term used to describe a group of conditions that affect people in different ways. Managing cerebral palsy depends upon what functions are impaired. In many cases, people with cerebral palsy have normal intelligence, so treatment is generally an issue of enhancing physical abilities. Dr. Murray Goldstein, director of research and education for United Cerebral Palsy says there is no one size fits all approach to managing cerebral palsy.

"We call cerebral palsy a syndrome because a lot of things are dumped together," says Dr. Goldstein. "We must get specific to determine the disability or dysfunction and then approach each in a separate way. Because the brain can't be repaired, what we concentrate on is treating the symptoms. The good news is that a number of interventions have been developed to address each of the presentations [of cerebral palsy]."

Want to see more?

• An Overview of Cerebral Palsy: When Your Child Has Celebral Palsy

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