Fully funded by CPA donors, fundraising and Medicare, the CPA Early Diagnosis Clinics aims to fast track diagnosis and enable quicker access to early interventions.
A diagnosis of cerebral palsy can now be made for children under 6 months of age. Babies’ brains develop more rapidly in the first 1000 days of their life than at any other time.
Although the brain of young children with cerebral palsy remains injured, the injury does not get worse as they develop.
Depending on the level of severity of cerebral palsy, young children may experience difficulties with physical development such as:
If your child is not reaching these milestones or they display some of the signs of cerebral palsy, you may need to speak to your early childhood nurse, general practitioner or paediatrician.
In NSW, questions relating to developmental milestones are described in the Personal Health Record book (Blue Book) provided to families when their child is born.
The time varies when parents are given an official diagnosis that their child has cerebral palsy. Very premature babies are usually watched carefully and may have an early MRI scan (magnetic resonance imaging).Â
However, most children with cerebral palsy are not born prematurely. Most are born at full term and it is not until they do not meet the usual infant milestones that any form of disability is considered. A MRI might show that they have an injury to the brain, but at that stage it is often too early to predict the impact.Â
The General Movements Assessment can be conducted from birth until 5 months of age. It is a strong predictor of cerebral palsy, particularly when certain changes to the brain are seen on an MRI. However, General Movements Assessment cannot predict the severity of cerebral palsy. If a General Movements Assessment suggests that a baby is ‘at risk of cerebral palsy’, then intervention can start as early as possible.
Doctors will pay special attention to the child’s movements – both their voluntary movements as well as their muscle tone. Some children may have very relaxed, floppy muscles, while others have stiff, tight muscles.
They will also look for any unusual postures or if the child favours one side over the other. Scans such as MRI or CT may be ordered by the doctor.
One of the frustrations for parents is that sometimes a diagnosis can take a long time, with repeated tests and visits to specialists. This may be because the child has a mild form of cerebral palsy, but it could also be because the doctor needs to make sure it is not another type of movement disorder that may be progressive (get worse over time).
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