How Does Cerebral Palsy Affect Cognitive Skills?

Cerebral palsy is a condition that develops due to damage to the brain. It usually develops during birth or infancy. Because motor areas of the brain are damaged with cerbral palsy, certain muscles and nerves do not function properly. It is not a progressive disorder, however, secondary problems can worsen over time with nerves and muscles. Some people may even have problems with cognitive skills due to cerebral palsy.

Affected Cognitive Skills

• Cognitive skills refer to the thinking process and retaining information processes of the brain. Some of the most common cognitive skills that are affected are attention, learning, solving problems and decision making. You may also experience problems with speech and language.

  These cognitive skills and loss of them can make it difficult for you to retain information aand learn new information, especially in a learning environment. Thinking may seem labored, making it take longer periods of time to process new information. You may not recognize certain thoughts and ideas that you did before. You may experience having a good day for learning, followed by a bad day. If you are tired, your thought process may slow even more.

  If you have problems with hearing or vision, this can cause even more problems with learning. It can make cognitive disabilities even more pronounced.

Managing Cognitive Skills

• There are different types of therapy that can benefit you if you suffer from cerebral palsy and have cognitive disabilities. One type of therapy is hyperbaric chamber therapy, or HBOT. This is the use of oxygen at high levels to bring more saturated oxygen to your brain. The typical time in the chamber is 90 to 120 minutes. It is difficult to predict the outcome of HBOT with cerebral palsy patients.

  Music therapy has also been known to help with cognitive skills related to cerebral palsy. Your participation in the therapy helps you to be able to attain such tasks as retaining information by using areas of the brain that may be damaged due to cerebral palsy.

  Other therapies that can increase your cognitive skills are occupational therapy, a therapy that can help you achieve your independence as well as improve your thinking and comprehension skills. There is also physical therapy, and speech and language therapy, which can help you if you have muscle spasticity. This therapy will help you be able to speak more clearly and relay your thoughts more clearly.

  There may be a need for continual therapy, which means your therapy may need to be ongoing.