ABSTRACT
The popular term for cerebral palsy is ‘spastic’, but the spastic type is just one form of cerebral palsy, although the predominant one. Cerebral palsy is quite distinct from spina bifida, even though the affected children may be similarly wheelchair bound. Brain injury is rarely discriminating: damage to the motor area is likely to be accompanied by damage to other areas. Many kinds of cerebral palsy are difficult to detect or, at least, diagnostically differentiate in the first few months of life. The complexity and uncertainty surrounding cerebral palsy have been outlined in order that the following, necessarily simplified, descriptive account is seen as a great deal tidier than the reality. Athetosis shows itself in rapid fluctuations of muscle tone which results in facial contortions and grimaces, and writhing movements of the limbs, especially when the child is excited or making an effort to do something.
