No one is immune from serious illnesses. And if a family has a problem, a child with cerebral palsy was born, every parent wants to know everything about the disease and how it develops.
Let's consider some features of the development of children diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
Shortly about the disease
Children's cerebral palsy is a group of chronic syndromes not prone to progression, characterized by motor impairments.
Relative to brain diseases are secondary. Sometimes as the child grows, there is a false progression of the disease. In some children with this disease, pathologies of mental activity are observed to some extent.
The disease occurs due to pathological processes in the cortex, trunk or subcortical areas of the brain. The incidence of this pathology is two cases per 1000 newborns.
Psycho-emotional and personal development of the child
The degree of deviation of the child's psycho-emotional development from normal indices depends on many factors. And above all - this is the child's mental development and the degree of damage to his brain. However, no less important is the attitude of the surrounding people to the child.
Psychoemotional abnormalities of children with cerebral palsy may manifest themselves in different ways. So, individual children are excessively irritable, excitable, they are characterized by a sharp change of mood throughout the day.
Some guys on the contrary, are shy, timid, they hardly come into contact with others, do not show initiative in their actions.
For most children, mental retardation is characterized by the type of infantilism. This means that they have underdevelopment of the emotional-volitional sphere of the individual.
Intellect in such cases can correspond to the norm. However, the immaturity of the emotional sphere is revealed.
Behavior of children
In the case of mental development disorders related to cerebral palsy, such characteristics are observed in the behavior of children:
- the child is guided mainly by emotions associated with pleasure;
- for children with cerebral palsy is self-centered;
- they can not work purposefully in the team;
- they do not know how to relate their own interests to the interests of the people around them;
- in behavior are inherent elements of infantility;
- even in high school age such children have an increased interest in games;
- they are extremely suggestible, incapable of volitional efforts on themselves;
- behavior is also characterized by instability of emotions, disinhibition;
- children, as a rule, quickly become tired;
- they are hard to adapt to new conditions, they have different fears - most often fear of height, darkness, etc.;
- children are very sensitive to the mood and behavior of others, which is reflected in increased sensitivity: neutral for other children, the incidents can cause them to react violently.
- is often a violation of sleep, the appearance of nightmares, night anxiety.
Features of physical development of
Violations of motor activity in infantile cerebral palsy lead to curvature of the spine, contractures and other pathologies of internal organs. To prevent complications, it is very important to form muscle tone.
All work and attention of parents should be aimed at the correct formation of motor functions. The most acceptable are such effects as massage and therapeutic gymnastics.
The main thing in the classes is their early start, as well as continuity. This will determine the success of the treatment.
The complex of exercises is selected depending on the severity of the disease, individual developmental features. Corrective work is reduced to the formation of vital skills, such as the ability to walk and serve themselves.
The acquired skills must be adapted to everyday life, constantly practicing them until automatism.
Features of motor development of children with cerebral palsy:
- it is necessary to stimulate his interest in mobile games;
- needs to develop fine motor skills;
- also needs to form a correct idea of your body;
- is also important to stimulate communication with others;
- at every opportunity should develop a child's self-service skills.
Development of fine motor skills in children with cerebral palsy:
Speech development of
All children with cerebral palsy have verbal abnormalities to one degree or another. The degree of their severity depends on how damaged the brain structures.
The problem for such children is, first of all, the absence or limitation of full-fledged communication, cognitive activity. These circumstances contribute to the slow development of the child's vocabulary.
Speech development of a child is successfully corrected by specially selected individual activities. They allow:
- to develop necessary knowledge about the surrounding world;
- replenish the vocabulary;
- to establish communication with others.
Such children are very fond of playing, it is absolutely necessary for them. However, this should be done only with other children and with parents, and not alone.
Parents to note
There is too much compassion and excessive impressionability in the child's upbringing.
Parents need:
- not to get hung up on the fact that the child is inferior;
- as often as possible should praise the child, encourage him to take active action and encourage them;
- must necessarily contribute to the formation of a correct self-assessment;
- , as necessary, you should contact specialists.
So, the development of a child with cerebral palsy has its own distinctive features. First and foremost, parents should not panic and emphasize the physical handicap in every possible way.
On the contrary, it is necessary to help him to adapt to life in society, to reduce manifestations of the disease and to form a correct self-esteem.