The William Little Foundation is a medical research charity whose aim is to prevent cerebral palsy and other neurodevelopmental disorders.
Cerebral palsy (CP) is one of the most severe forms of neurodevelopmental disorder. The medical definition of CP is: “a group of permanent disorders of the development of movement and posture, causing activity limitation, that are attributed to non-progressive disturbances that occurred in the developing fetal or infant brain. The motor disorders of CP are often accompanied by disturbances of sensation, perception, cognition, communication, and behaviour, by epilepsy, and by secondary musculoskeletal problems.” [1]
People who have CP are born with the condition, although it can take as long as two years to be diagnosed.
Globally, CP is believed to affect between 1.5 and 4 in every 1,000 live births, with the developing world suffering the highest incidence. Record-keeping is however inconsistent, which needs to be addressed urgently. Initiatives like the proposed UK national CP register, building on the evidence of successful examples across Europe, N America and Australia, can resolve this need.
Find out more about CP incidence and the need for a UK CP Register here.
