Cerebral palsy cannot be cured, but the disorder can be treated. Treatments focus on lessening the severity of the symptoms which, for some sufferers, can make life much more enjoyable and productive. For people with the most severe cases of this disorder, cerebral palsy causes complete disability. For some sufferers, however, treatments can alleviate some of the most severe symptoms or, at least, help manage them.

Vision, Hearing and Speech

Cerebral palsy causes problems controlling the muscles and that means that speech is sometimes difficult for sufferers. With a good speech therapist, however, they can oftentimes learn to speak quite well and, sometimes, they can speak completely normally. This is an important factor in helping to make people who suffer from CP feel less isolated.

Vision and hearing are oftentimes affected by this disorder, as well. Corrective lenses and hearing aids are used to treat these symptoms. With proper corrective devices, people with CP can sometimes hear as well as anyone else. Of course, this helps with speech, as well.

Walking

Walking takes an enormous amount of muscle coordination and CP’s classic effect is a loss of muscular control. That means that many sufferers have a very hard time walking, if they can walk at all.

Various types of assistive devices, from crutches to wheelchairs, can help with this. Sufferers also sometimes benefit from physical therapy, which can increase their ability to control their muscles and to maintain their balance. They will probably still need crutches or other support, but they can oftentimes move to a less restrictive assistive device, such as from a wheelchair to crutches. Some people with CP actually participate in athletic events and other activities and only suffer a shaky walk, but are otherwise able to get around on their own.

Spasms

Spasms can make it difficult for people to use their muscles at all and, in fact, they sometime end up putting a CP sufferer out of the action for a few days when they get particularly severe. Intramuscular injections and medications sometimes alleviate these symptoms. Massage and therapies that utilize heat and cold are also sometimes useful.

Some cases of cerebral palsy are caused by medical negligence. When a doctor or another healthcare provider takes actions that cause baby brain damage, or fails to take actions that would have prevented it, suing is one of the options open to parents. These lawsuits sometimes net substantial sums for the plaintiffs.