Cerebral Palsy

            In the 1860s, an English surgeon named William Little wrote the first medical descriptions of a disorder that struck children in the first years of life, causing stiff, spastic muscles in their legs and their arms. These children had difficulty grabbing objects, crawling, and walking. They did not get better as they grew up nor did they become worse. Their condition is just one of several disorders that affect control of movement and are grouped together under the term cerebral palsy.
             "Little suggested their condition resulted from a lack of oxygen during birth since they were mostly born premature or had difficult deliveries. This oxygen shortage damaged sensitive brain tissues controlling movement, he proposed(Kuban, 1994, p.188)."" But in 1897, the famous psychiatrist Sigmund Freud disagreed. "Noting that children with cerebral palsy often had other problems such as mental retardation, visual disturbances, and seizures, Freud suggested that the disorder might sometimes have roots earlier in life, during the brain's development in the womb. Difficult birth, in certain cases, he wrote, is merely a symptom of deeper effects that influence the development of the fetus'(Batshaw, 1997, p. 39)."".
             Despite Freud's observation, the belief that birth complications cause most cases of cerebral palsy was widespread among many people, including medical researchers until very recently. "In the 1980s, however, scientists analyzed extensive data from a government study of more than 35,000 births and were surprised to discover that such complications account for only a fraction of cases -- probably less than 10 percent(p.42)."" In most cases of cerebral palsy, no cause of the factors explored could be found. These findings have spurred today's researchers to explore alternative causes.
             What is Cerebral palsy?.
             "Cerebral palsy is a general term used to describe a group of chronic disorders impairing control of movement (Kuban, 1994, p.