Glossary
Learning your child may be at higher risk for medical or developmental challenges can feel overwhelming. To help, we’ve compiled common terms and definitions related to infants at higher risk for cerebral palsy.
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Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of disorders that affect a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture. CP is the most common motor disability in childhood. Cerebral means having to do with the brain. Palsy means weakness or problems with using the muscles. CP is caused by abnormal brain development or damage to the developing brain that affects a person’s ability to control his or her muscles.
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The term used to describe the services and supports that are available to babies and young children with developmental delays and disabilities and their families as part of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act. May include speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and other types of services based on the needs of the child and family. These publicly funded programs provide services for free or at reduced cost for any child who is eligible.
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A temporary diagnosis used in the first years of life to describe a child who is experiencing delays in their developmental skills in one or more of the following areas: physical development, cognitive development, communication development, social or emotional development, or adaptive development. The degree of delay and number of areas that must be delayed to receive this diagnosis vary by state. Your local school or early intervention program should be able to tell you the definition of developmental delay that’s used in your area.
In California children are eligible for early intervention if they have a developmental delay (of 25% or more in one or more areas).
Source: https://www.dds.ca.gov/services/early-start/laws-and-regulations/
It is important that an assessment tool specifically designed for young infants is used to determine if a child has a developmental delay. As tools used for older children may not accurately determine if a child is delayed. For example, if your child is 1 month old a 25% delay is only 1 week of delay. Most assessment tools for children are only accurate to a 1-2 months window. So a provider trained in measuring development in infants under 6-12 months is crucial to early identification of a developmental delay.
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Physical therapists are movement experts who improve quality of life through prescribed exercise, hands-on care, and patient education. Physical therapists examine each person and then develop a treatment plan to improve their ability to move, reduce or manage pain, restore function, and prevent disability. Physical therapists can be board certified in pediatrics.
Find a Board Certified Specialist in Pediatrics in your area
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Occupational therapists help people participate in their desired occupations with the therapeutic use of everyday activities, based on the client’s personal interests and needs. Occupational therapy (OT) considers the complex relationship between the client, the activity, and the environment in which the activity takes place. Examples of OT interventions include: helping a child with a disability to participate fully in school and social situations, assisting an injured worker to regain skills they need to function in their job, or providing supports to older adults experiencing cognitive or physical changes.
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Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) work to prevent, assess, diagnose, and treat speech, language, social communication, cognitive-communication, and swallowing disorders in children and adults. People under the care of SLP’s may have difficulty producing speech sounds, problems with his or her voice, trouble understanding others or sharing thoughts, ideas, and feelings, problems communicating for social purposes, problems organizing thoughts, paying attention, remembering, planning, and/or problem-solving or feeding and swallowing difficulties.
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Hypotonia is a term that describes decreased muscle tone. Typically, muscles have a very small amount of contraction that gives them a springy feel even when relaxed. This also provides some resistance to passive movement. It is not the same as muscle weakness, although the two conditions can happen at the same time.
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Hypertonia is a condition in which there is too much muscle tone. For instance, arms or legs are stiff and hard to move. Muscle tone is controlled by signals that travel from the brain to the nerves and tell the muscle to contract. Hypertonia happens when the regions of the brain or spinal cord that control these signals are damaged.
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Spasticity is a condition in which there is an abnormal increase in muscle tone or stiffness of muscle, which might interfere with movement, speech, or be associated with discomfort or pain. Spasticity is usually caused by damage to nerve pathways within the brain or spinal cord that control muscle movement.
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Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a non-invasive imaging technology that produces three dimensional detailed anatomical images. It is often used for disease detection, diagnosis, and treatment monitoring. It is based on sophisticated technology that excites and detects the change in the direction of the rotational axis of protons found in the water that makes up living tissues.
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If your baby was born more than 3 weeks early, or less than 37 weeks of gestation, we use both their chronological and adjusted age to consider their development.
Chronological age is based on the number of days since your child was born.
Corrected or adjusted age is based on the number of days if your baby was born on their expected due date (40 weeks of gestation). When we consider your baby’s development, we expect them to be similar to other babies at their adjusted age. This gives them “credit” for being born early since being born early means you are not fully ready for the outside world. As your child approaches 24 months of age they should gradually be catching up so their development is closer to their chronological age.
To consider your baby’s adjusted age:
Age today in months - months preterm = adjusted age
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Asymmetry can be defined by the presentation of the body either not appearing to be identical on the left and right side, or an imbalance between the body halves
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A baby with a higher likelihood of receiving a cerebral palsy diagnosis due to risk factors and whose neuroimaging, standardized neurological, and standardized motor assessments indicate congruent abnormal findings indicative of cerebral palsy.
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Put simply, neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to change – to rewire, relearn and strengthen important connections.
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A process used to review, analyze, and translate the latest evidence. The goal is to quickly incorporate the best scientific information, along with clinical experience and patient preference, into clinical practice, so providers can make informed patient-care decisions. Evidence-based practice is the cornerstone of clinical practice and improves quality of care and patient outcomes.
Current evidence based guidelines on treatment for infants and children with CP