Overview
Cerebral palsy (CP) is a neurological condition that can present as issues with muscle tone, posture and/or a movement disorder. It’s the result of damage to your brain during fetal development or another developmental disability that affects the way your brain develops. The signs and symptoms of CP appear early in childhood and can vary widely from person to person.
The main effect of CP is that it disrupts control of muscle movement (conditions that do this are known as movement disorders). It may also affect nearby brain areas and the abilities they control, but that isn’t always the case. Having CP doesn’t automatically cause someone to have an intellectual disability.
Types of cerebral palsy
There are three main types of CP:
- Spastic: This type involves muscle tightness and spasms.
- Dyskinetic: This type involves issues with muscle control.
- Mixed: This type involves features of both the spastic and dyskinetic types.
Experts also organize subtypes of CP by patterns based on what part of your body they mainly affect. Those patterns are:
- Diplegic, which affects your arms more than your legs.
- Quadriplegic, which affects all your limbs.
- Hemiplegic, which affects one side of your body (left or right) more than the other.
- Monoplegic, which affects one limb.
- Paraplegic, which affects your legs.
How common is cerebral palsy?
CP is uncommon overall. Between 5,500 and 13,100 children in the United States are born with it each year. Research indicates that as of 2019, more than 1 million adults in the U.S. are living with cerebral palsy, and experts also expect that number will keep growing.
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