sight and hearing problems of ataxic CP - Cerebral Palsy Message Board

knicholson · 05-19-2002, 04:28 PM

At 16 mos. our daughter Kalen was not walking. We began PT. We had a very blunt ortho/ped do a 2 minute exam and tell us that she had CP and gave no more explanation. Our pediatrican offered to refer us to a neurologist but didn't feel that our daughter had CP. The lady doing PT did not feel she had CP either because her joints were not spastic. So the subject was dropped. At 19 mos she began walking, slowly. She suffered from tremors for awhile but got over them. At this time her gross and fine motor skills were equavalant to that of a 9-12 mo old. All of the developemental milestones have come slowly and not so easily to Kalen. She is now 5 and I have sensed for awhile that something isn't quiet right with her. When she failed her screening to get into kindergarten, because of her gross and fine motor skills we decided she needed evaluation. We are in the process of having her evaluated and the subject of ataxic CP has come up. Kalen fits the definition to it to a T. I am wondering if there is a basic sight problem that effects kids with CP and if their hearing problems are deafness or auditory. It also seems that Kalen has problems with hand/eye coordination. Is this common with ataxic CP?

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crazycrow · 06-02-2002, 12:44 PM

I have CP and also had problems walking at the ages you referred to with your daughter. Which was how my mom found out I have CP. I have a yonger brother, thirteen mouths younger then I. My mom was telling me that when my brother was first starting to walk that I was still crawling.I do not know what type of CP I have, but what you decribe about your daughter sounds a lot like what my mom decribed of me. I also failed the first grade, I would not decribe myself as a slow learner, but I always seem to be a little bit behind everyone esle. I also have bad eye site, my left eye is fine my right eye though is where I have the trouble. Its like there is shadow over my eye that blocks double vision. From birth up till the age of eighteen or nineteen I stayed pretty much the same when it came to my CP. Then I was in the process of moving, unloading a rentle truck when I had my first seizure(spelling).On top of all I had to deal with with CP now I find out I have epalipsy.