Cerebral palsy (CP) is a common complication that can arise when babies suffer serious traumatic brain injuries before, during, or shortly after birth. Because CP is caused by the improper development of or damage to the brain in infants, it can have many symptoms, including developmental delays, limb weakness, uncontrolled movements, and more.
In addition to physical and mental complications, CP can cause sensory problems. Children with CP can experience difficulties with vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell, and sensing body position (proprioception).
If your child has CP, understanding how it affects their senses is important for giving them the care and support they need.
The Link Between Cerebral Palsy and Sensory Impairment
Let’s take a closer look at how CP can affect specific senses:
Vision
Visual impairments are common among people with CP. A 2022 study found that 34-100% of individuals with CP experience some form of vision problems.
These issues can range from refractive errors (nearsightedness or farsightedness) and strabismus (crossed eyes or wandering eye) to more severe conditions like cortical visual impairment (CVI) and even blindness.
- Refractive Errors: These are issues with focusing light properly, leading to blurry vision, which impacts about 52% of people with CP.
- Strabismus: This refers to misalignment of the eyes, affecting depth perception and 3D vision, which impacts 48% of CP patients.
- Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI): This difficulty processing visual information leads to challenges with recognizing objects, faces, and spatial relationships.
- Blindness: If severe enough, the above conditions can result in complete or near-complete loss of vision, impacting about 10% of people with CP.
These visual impairments can significantly affect a child’s ability to navigate their environment, learn, and interact with others. Early detection and appropriate interventions, such as glasses, vision therapy, or assistive technology, can make a big difference in managing these challenges.
Hearing
While hearing impairment is not a direct symptom of CP, it affects 10-20% of individuals with CP. Hearing issues occur more frequently in people with CP due to several factors, including:
- Neurological Issues: Brain damage associated with CP can sometimes affect the areas responsible for processing auditory information.
- Associated Health Problems: Certain genetic disorders that can cause CP might also impact hearing.
- Treatment Complications: Some medications used to manage CP or its associated conditions can have ototoxic (ear poisoning) effects, potentially leading to hearing loss.
Hearing impairments in children with CP can range from mild to profound. Again, early identification and intervention are crucial for supporting language development and communication skills. Hearing aids, cochlear implants, and communication therapies can all help manage hearing loss.
Smell and Taste
For some children with CP, certain smells or tastes might be overwhelming or even intolerable. This can make eating intense and uncomfortable.
On the other hand, some children might experience a reduced ability to taste or smell, which can also be associated with chewing and swallowing difficulties.
Touch
Tactile sensitivities are common with CP. Some children may have heightened sensitivity to touch (tactile defensiveness), where even light touch or certain textures can feel uncomfortable or painful. This can make activities like dressing, bathing, or social interaction challenging.
On the other hand, some people with CP may have reduced sensitivity to touch (hypoesthesia), where they may not fully perceive pressure or temperature, which could pose injury risks.
Proprioception
Proprioception, often called the “sixth sense,” is our body’s awareness of its position and movement in space. It’s what allows us to walk without looking at our feet and maintain balance without thinking about it.
For children with CP, proprioception can be impaired, leading to challenges with motor control, coordination, and balance.
- Motor Control: People with poor proprioception may struggle to move their limbs accurately, affecting everything from fine motor skills like handwriting to gross motor skills like walking.
- Coordination: Impaired proprioception can make it difficult to perform tasks that require coordination between different body parts, such as buttoning a shirt.
- Balance: Balance is also often impaired in people with CP, increasing the risk of falls and injuries.
While impaired proprioception can be a significant challenge for children with CP, interventions like physical therapy, sensory integration therapy, and assistive devices can be helpful.
Can Doctors Be Held Liable for Cerebral Palsy-Related Impairments?
Doctors can be held liable for CP-related impairments—such as blindness or deafness—if it can be proven that the impairment was the result of medical negligence or a breach of the standard of care during pregnancy, labor, or delivery.
Medical professionals must follow established protocols and guidelines to prevent harm to their patients, including newborn babies. If an investigation shows that a healthcare provider failed to diagnose a condition before, during, or shortly after delivery, did not respond appropriately to fetal distress, or made preventable errors during delivery, they may be considered negligent.
If you suspect your baby’s CP and related sensory impairments are the result of brain damage caused during delivery, contact our firm.
Our Chicago Birth Injury Lawyers Are Ready to Help
Finding out that your baby developed CP as a result of a doctor’s negligence is devastating. It can be even more devastating to learn that they also have one or more sensory impairments as a result of their condition.
At Beam Legal Team, our Chicago cerebral palsy lawyers have many years of experience helping families get compensation for their children’s birth injuries, including CP and its various complications.
If your child with CP shows signs of vision loss, hearing loss, or other sensory impairments, we want to help. Contact us today for a free consultation.
