The goal of every Physician and parents is to improve the functionality and capabilities of a child who has Cerebral Palsy.
Proper assessment is the key to achieving the goal.
As early as the first symptoms manifested, a Doctor can already assess the child.
Clinical assessment instruments for child's development are excellent tools to gather data.
To measure the child's muscle spasticity at any age, Ashworth Scale or Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS), wherein the child is put in a supine position, it measures the resistance during passive stretching.
Another tool that is beneficial is the Functional Independence Measure (WeeFIM) for children six months to seven years old.
Self-care, cognition and mobility are being measured in this test.
For the movement, like walking and sitting, Gross Motor Function Classification System for CP instrument is being utilized.
For pain assessment, the FACES rating scale is the most commonly is used.
Doctors or parents can immediately compare to the drawings of six representing varying degree of pain.
The Child Health Questionnaire is helpful to parents and carer.
The questionnaire measures the child's physical, emotional and social comfort.
And to measure the child's mental capacity, the Denver Developmental Screening Test (DDST) is widely used in measuring the developmental progress.
Planning for a child who has cerebral palsy uses multispecialty approach.
Meaning the primary doctor collaborates with another discipline to carefully understand and identifies the specific needs of a child.
CP is defined as a neuro-developmental chronic condition that affects the brain and muscle movement.
Primarily, the physician will conduct the very basic assessment using various tools to gather certain data, to get baseline data.
Re-assessment is done after every intervention and should be a continuous process as part of treatment.
In doing assessment with the child, the surrounding should be common, parents or carer must be within the child's reach to elicit a good response.
Therapist for doctor must maintain a "playful mood" and tools should not threaten the child.
Have a less stressful environment.
As much as possible, a quick but relevant assessment, within the limits of the child's time frame, to solicit cooperation.
Subjective examination can be obtained from the parents, like asking the parent when did they first noticed the symptoms and the general details, like the name, address, age, etc.
Also included in the subjective assessment is the prenatal history, age of the mother, history of past illness, like exposure to virus and other communicable disease.
Objective examinations can be attained by observing the child's behavior, whether the child is alert, slow in reaction, using a checklist tool, during friendly activities.
Head - to -toe assessment validates the prominent deviations from the normal data.
Neuroimaging helps doctor see the extent of the brain damage.
Thorough assessment facilitates suitable treatment and management for a child with CP.