Are you studying hard to become a AIEEE Topper? If so you have come to the right place - AIEEE Prep is dedicated to ensuring AIEEE aspirants are able to excel by offering AIEEE practice exams and AIEEE solved papers so that you can prepare properly. IITJEE and WBJEE  prep courses are also available.

IICP stands for Indian Institute for Cerebral Palsy and was founded in 1974 as a specialist resource centre for cerebral palsy. IICP was formerly known as the Spastics Society of Eastern India.

IICP is located in Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal, India. IICP's address is P 35/1 Taratolla Road, Kolkata 700088. For a Google Map of IICP's location click here.

IICP provides a wide range of services of people with cerebral palsy along with their families. IICP's services include a Diagnostic Clinic, Neurology Clinic, Early Intervention Clinic and Home Management Services, just to name a few. For a full list of IICP services please visit the 'Services' page of the website.

IICP is an NGO that provides a wide variety of services for people with disabilities (cerebral palsy).  IICP, NGO was formerly known as Spastics Society of India.

Professionals providing care for the affected child will develop recommendations for treatment of his or her cerebral palsy. Several treatments are available to help a child function at the highest level possible. 

As no two children are affected by cerebral palsy in identical ways, individual treatment programs vary widely. But because all children with cerebral palsy have movement problems, you can expect that a crucial feature of your child's treatment will be a therapeutic exercise program. Depending on your child's needs, a physical therapist, an occupational therapist, and a speech-language pathologist will work with your child to assist him or her with better posture and movement.

At first, your child will see his or her therapist quite often, usually at least twice a week. With time, he or she may need a less intensive program. The therapists may suggest that you work on the child's movement skills at home, and he will train you in special exercises and handling techniques. It is generally considered exceedingly early intervention if a baby begins therapy before six months of age. Most infants are not referred until later in the first year or even in the second year of life. The age at which your child is referred will depend of course on how quickly the physician diagnose cerebral palsy, or other problems requiring therapy. Researchers are still focusing on the long term benefits therapy can offer. However, it is generally agreed that children who receive good treatment not only have less movement limitations, but also have better postures, better muscle development, and better abilities in toileting, feeding, and dressing themselves. Therapy programs enable children with cerebral palsy to explore and experience activities that they might not otherwise be able to do independently.

The term Cerebral palsy (CP) signifies a group of non-contagious motor conditions that cause physical disability in human development, mainly in the various areas of body movement.

Cerebral refers to the cerebrum, which is the affected area of the brain, and palsy refers to disorder of movement. Cerebral palsy is due to damage to the motor control centers of the developing brain and can occur during pregnancy, during childbirth or even after birth up to around age three.

Cerebral palsy causes activity limitation, that are attributed to non-progressive disturbances that took place in the developing fetal or infant brain. There are motor disorders and these are also often accompanied by disturbances of sensation, perception, cognition, communication, and behavior, by epilepsy, and by secondary musculoskeletal problems.

There is no known "cure" for Cerebral palsy. Medical intervention is limited to the treatment and prevention of complications.

Improvements in neonatal nursing have certainly helped bring down the number of babies who develop cerebral palsy. However, the survival of babies with abnormally low birth weights has increased, and these babies are more likely to have cerebral palsy.

There are five kinds of cerebral palsy: spastic, athetoid, ataxic, Hypotonic and mixed, and also further categorized according to topographic distribution Quadriplegia, Diplegia and Hemiplegia.

Spastic is the most common type of CP. A kid with spasticity is unable to relax his muscles or his muscles may be stiff. Athetoid CP affects a kid's ability to control the muscles in his body. This means that the arms or legs affected by athetoid CP may flutter and move all of a sudden. A kid with ataxic CP will have problems with balance and coordination.

Some kids with CP use wheelchairs and others walk using crutches or braces. In certain cases, a kid's speech may be affected or impaired.

Cerebral palsy is difficult and challenging to all sciences of healing. Allopathic system comes of no use here except physiotherapy, surgical corrections, Botox or Botulinum Toxins and many psychological aids which really helps very little. The important motor area of cerebral cortex is damaged along with other areas of brain. Birth injuries, obstetrical complications, high-grade fevers, and prolonged jaundice at birth, head injury and genetically aberrations are the most common causes.

The brain development usually completes within 5 years of age. CP child has damaged brain, that is why it develops very slowly. Depending upon the severity of damage to motor area, the development in the child will occur. Apart from the brain damage, the poor management and spasticity also brings along orthopedic disabilities. These children have low resistant power, and so get recurring infections of URI (cold, cough and fever), diarrhea, malaria etc.

The United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) Foundation estimates that approximately 800,000 children and adults in the United States are living with symptoms of cerebral palsy. The federal government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that each year about 10,000 babies born in the United States will develop cerebral palsy.

Children with Cerebral Palsy

Children with cerebral palsy have several problems, not all of them related to the brain injury. Most of these complications however are neurological. They include epilepsy, mental retardation, learning disabilities, and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder.
 

When it comes to expectations and questions regarding the future of such a child, a combination of optimism and realism must be maintained, just as one would with any child. It is very important for the parent of a child with cerebral palsy to understand the child's present and future abilities. With time and professional help, the parent will develop a set of mostly realistic goals and it is to these goals that the parent, child, and professional will channel their effort towards. An attempt to define future expectations of the child with cerebral palsy is usually most important in the teenage years and beyond, when function is better defined and the future can be gauged better by everyone involved.

When a child is a few years old and severely disabled with cerebral palsy, parents begin to wonder if the treatment should have been less aggressive than it was. In most of the cases, information regarding the ultimate outcome is not available, and families and physicians do the best they can with the little information they have. The role of the physician is to gather as much information about the child's condition as possible and to keep the family informed about these. The family on the other hand, must cooperate when there are decisions to be made about further aggressive treatment, though ultimately it is the physician's responsibility to decide what may or may not be done. Physicians will always consider the family's wishes, yet at same time cannot give up their legal and moral obligation to do what is best for their patient. The problem lies here, in trying to figure out what is best. A decision to aggressively treat the child with cerebral palsy involves the use of sophisticated equipment although there are clearly times when it is more humane to withhold such treatment. Clergy, social workers, ethicist, as well as other health care workers who know the family often help in making a decision about what is best for the child.

Signs of CP

If a child is not able to coordinate his/her motor movements by the age of 3-years, he could be suffering from cerebral palsy. CP or Cerebral Palsy describes a group of disorders that disrupt muscle co-ordination and motor movements. It is a result of damage to a part or parts of the developing brain, especially those controlling motor movements.

The brain begins to develop in the fetal stage during early pregnancy, and continues till the child is about 3-years of age. Since Cerebral Palsy relates to the developing brain, it can occur before birth, during birth or even after the birth of a child. The human brain has two halves or hemispheres, each controlling different functions of the body. Damage to any of these affects different regions of the body. In Cerebral Palsy, it affects Motor skills, gross as well as fine. So, it is neither a weakness of the muscles nor that of the nerves that leads to CP.  

A CP child is not mentally retarded, paralyzed, or totally incapacitated. The child’s intelligence is not affected. The child will have average thinking and learning ability. The problem lies entirely with the brain not being able to control healthy muscles for motor coordination. Loss of motor control does not mean inability to learn, think or feel. In mild cases, the child may live as long as any normal being, but in severe cases, the life expectancy may be very less. Children with this disorder need special skills and individual care, both at home and in special schools to help them cope with life. 

Cerebral palsy happens due to damage to certain parts of the developing brain.

• This damage can happen early in pregnancy when the brain is just beginning to form, during the birth process as the child passes through the birth canal, or after birth in the first few years of life. However, in many cases, the exact cause of the brain damage is never known.

• Many cases of cerebral palsy are actually a result of a combination of prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal factors.

The risk factors linked with cerebral palsy include the following:

• Infection, seizure disorder, thyroid disorder, and/or other medical problems present in the mother
• Birth defects, particularly those affecting the brain, spinal cord, head, face, lungs, or metabolism
• Incompatibility in the Rh factor, a difference in the blood between mother and fetus that can cause brain damage in the fetus
• Certain hereditary and genetic conditions
• Complications occurring during labor and delivery
• Premature birth
• Abnormally low birth weight 
• Severe jaundice following birth
• Multiple births (twins, triplets)
• Shortage of oxygen (hypoxia) reaching the brain before, during, or after birth
• Brain damage early in life, as a result of infection (such as meningitis), head injury, lack of oxygen, or bleeding

Possible Causes of Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral palsy happens as a result of brain damage that affects a child's ability to control the muscles in the body. The region of the brain that is damaged determines the parts of the body are affected. There can be several causes of the brain damage. Some causes affect the child's brain development during the first 6 months of pregnancy. These causes include genetic conditions and problems with the blood flow to the brain. Other causes of cerebral palsy occur after the brain has developed. These causes can take place during later pregnancy, delivery, or the first years of the child's life. They include bacterial meningitis, bleeding inside the brain, oxygen deficiency, jaundice, and injury to the head.

Some causes which lead to cerebral palsy can be prevented. For instance, bike helmets and car seats can help avoiding head injuries that might result in cerebral palsy. Another cause to be noted is kernicterus, a kind of brain damage that takes place when a newborn baby has severe jaundice. In some newborn babies, the liver forms too much yellow pigment, called bilirubin. If too much bilirubin builds up in a new baby's body, the skin and whites of the eyes become yellow which is jaundice. If left untreated, very high levels of bilirubin can harm a baby's brain. Kernicterus often leads to cerebral palsy and hearing loss, but in some children it can also cause intellectual disabilities. Kernicterus can be avoided by using special therapies to treat babies. Cerebral palsy is not a condition that can be cured. Treatment can, however, help a person participate in family, school, and work activities as much as possible.

Cerebral palsy signifies a group of chronic conditions affecting movements of the body. It is a result of damage to one or more specific areas of the brain, generally occurring during fetal development or infancy. It also can happen prior to, during or a little after birth.

Cerebral refers to the brain and Palsy means a disorder of movement or posture. In the person with cerebral palsy, due to an injury to their brain (cerebral) they are not able to use some of the muscles in their body in the usual way (palsy). Children with cerebral palsy may not be able to walk, talk, eat or play in normal ways.

Cerebral palsy is not progressive or communicable. It is also not curable, although education, therapy and applied technology can assist persons with cerebral palsy and make them lead productive lives. Cerebral palsy is not a disease or illness and so isn't contagious.

Types of Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a neurological condition that affects muscle coordination and body movement. Cerebral palsy is essentially an umbrella term for several symptoms.  Unlike Down syndrome CP does not have a singular cause. Cerebral palsy is caused by brain damage occurring either during pregnancy, during delivery, or shortly after delivery, there are several different types of cerebral palsy, each classified by the way in which they affect the individual.

Because there are so many different factors as to the cause of cerebral palsy, each case is as individual as the person affected. The symptoms and severity of cerebral palsy can range from mild, barely noticeable effects, to severe, in which the individual has extremely poor motor skills and mental retardation.

Mild cerebral palsy indicates that the severity of the brain damage suffered was only significant enough to cause slight impairment. The symptoms of mild cerebral palsy are subtler and not easily recognizable. In cases of mild cerebral palsy, symptoms are not as disruptive, and usually not apparent to the naked eye. Sometimes parents and doctors are less likely to realize that a child even has mild cerebral palsy. The parents usually detect mild cerebral palsy as children may begin to have trouble reaching more advanced developmental milestones because of physical complications.

Because mild cerebral palsy is seldom detectable, early intervention is difficult. With earlier detections of mild cerebral palsy, corrective treatment can prove to be highly effective. In the instance of toe walking, for example, a plastic boot can help to train the motor skills and alleviate the problem. Sometimes mild cerebral palsy can affect the arms in subtle ways. A child with mild cerebral palsy may have trouble lifting heavier objects with a certain hand. The same child with mild cerebral palsy may have no difficulty writing with a pencil. Mild cerebral palsy can be more severe than other cases of cerebral palsy, in the sense that some won’t get the benefit of treatment. Some children with mild cerebral palsy are affected by physical limitations, but their intelligence is not affected at all. Because they are not educationally deficient they will not qualify to receive occupational or physical therapy through their respective school.

A mild cerebral palsy diagnosis with physical limitations can be difficult when the child seems normal in every other way. While the child manages to stay on top of educational tasks, other coordination type tasks, such as gym class, give the child difficulties and can hurt self-esteem. It is important to remind a child with mild cerebral palsy that not everyone is coordinated and regardless, they can still function beyond expectations.

• spastic cerebral palsy,
• choreoathetoid cerebral palsy, and
• hypotonic cerebral palsy.

Majority of patients however, have a mixture of these.

Spastic cerebral palsy refers to a condition in which the muscle tone is increased, leading to a rigid posture in one or more arm or leg. The spasticity leads to a limitation of use of the involved extremity, largely because of the inability to coordinate movements. The spasticity often occurs on one side of the body (hemiparesis), but it can also affect the four limbs (quadriparesis) or be limited to only the legs (spastic diplegia). When the condition is present in both legs, the patient often has a scissoring posture, where the legs are extended and crossed.

Choreoathetoid cerebral palsy is linked with abnormal writhing movements of the arms and/or legs. Persons with choreoathetoid cerebral palsy have variable muscle tone often with lessened muscle tone. The abnormal movements are activated by stress, as also by emotional reactions such as laughing. Any attempt to do voluntary movements may result in many involuntary movements in arms, legs, trunk, and even the face. Children who are mildly affected may have a few limitations of their function while severely affected children may have little or no use at all of the affected limb(s). Spasticity can also be painful, and medication should be administered to relax the muscle tone.

Hypotonia is associated with diminished muscle tone. The child with hypotonic cerebral palsy looks floppy - like a rag doll. Children with severe hypotonias may have the most difficulty of all children with cerebral palsy in having motor skill milestones and normal cognitive development.