ABSTRACT
Cerebral palsy is in fact an 'umbrella' term used by the medical profession to cover a variety of conditions, including that of being spastic. The one thing that all these conditions have in common is that they are the result of something having 'gone wrong' with the brain. Strictly speaking, only those whose muscles become abnormally stiff and resistant when an attempt is made to move them are spastic, i.e. have spastic cerebral palsy. Spasticity and athetosis are the main signs of cerebral palsy in the majority of cases. Ataxia, a condition in which coordination of movement and the ability to balance are disturbed, accounts for almost all the rest and a very small number suffer from tremor, rigidity or atony. It is possible for any child to suffer from more than one of these six types of disordered movement at the same time. Such children (and adults) have mixed types of cerebral palsy.
