WHAT ARE SOME DISORDERS WHICH ARE NOT CEREBRAL PALSY BUT RESEMBLE CEREBRAL PALSY?

Children with disabilities have many problems in common, especially problems involving interactions with family members and society at large. The physical and medical problems of children with disabilities vary widely, however. Some of the problems caused by various disorders resemble those affecting children with cerebral palsy, but on closer inspection the medical issues turn out to be quite distinct. Children with spinal cord dysfunction, for example, face medical problems such as insensate skin and bowel and bladder dysfunction, which differ markedly from the medical problems faced by children with cerebral palsy. Spinal cord dysfunction may be a result of spinal cord injury, spina bifida (meningomyelocele), or a congenital spinal cord malformation. Another large group of children who at time may look similar to those with cerebral palsy are children with temporary motor problems resulting from closed head injuries, seizures, drug overdoses, or some brain tumors. The medical issues for this group of children are also different

from the medical issues for children with cerebral palsy, because these injuries can occur at any age

and the severity of the problems caused by these injuries changes over time. We can also say that disorders that are primarily of muscle, nerve, and bone are not cerebral palsy by definition. Such conditions include muscular dystrophy, peripheral neuropathies such as Charcot-Marie- Tooth disease, and osteogenesis imperfecta. All of these conditions are associated with specific medical problems. Children with progressive neurologic disorders (including Rett's syndrome, leukodystrophy, and Tay-Sach's disease) also have medical needs which are different from those of children with cerebral palsy.

Some children with chromosomal anomalies (for example, trisomy 13 and 18) or congenital disorders (hereditary spastic paraplegia, for example) may appear similar to children with cerebral palsy; others, such as children with Down's syndrome, appear very different from children with cerebral palsy. Children with these disorders have some problems in common with children who have cerebral palsy; they also have problems that are unique for children with that specific disorder.