Table of contents:

What should come to my attention as a parent?
The most common symptoms of neurological disorders
The most common severe motor disabilities

Symptoms of neurological disorders can occur as early as the first year of a child's life - and deviations from the norm may indicate the need for further neurological assessment.

What should come to my attention as a parent?

The following listed factors are certainly among the worrying signals:

unexplained twitching or irregular movements (even subtle), which may be seizures - especially in the first months of life,
persistent or atypical infantile reflexes that do not disappear within a typical period of time - these may signal a neurological disorder, such as cerebral palsy,
motor problems: delayed development of motor skills (e.g. lifting the head, sitting up), flaccid or too rigid muscle tone.

Neurological abnormalities in the child: how to recognise them, photo: panthermedia

The most common symptoms of neurological disorders

The most common symptom of neurological disorders in newborns is seizures. This is because the neonatal brain is particularly hyperactive, which favours the occurrence of seizures. The tendency of the immature brain to generate them is due to a number of unique developmental features that increase its excitability, as well as the newborn's greater susceptibility to brain injury.

The majority of seizures in neonates in the first month of life are acutesymptomatic, but it is important to recognise epileptic syndromes that require long-term treatment.

Neonatal seizures can be divided into two types:provoked (provoked) orunprovoked (unprovoked). Provoked are usually triggered by perinatal trauma (e.g. hypoxia), strokes, bleeding in the brain, metabolic disorders or infections, whereas unprovoked may result from congenital structural brain abnormalities or genetic conditions.

Most common severe motor disabilities

The most common severe motor disability in children is cerebral palsy (CP). It may manifest solely as motor problems, but often other problems related to sensory, hearing and vision, communication, learning, intellectual abilities, epilepsy, behaviour and the skeletal system also co-exist.

Cerebral palsy, photo: panthermedia

The variety of symptoms makes early diagnosis of cerebral palsy sometimes difficult. Early detection allows therapy to begin with the child at a time when his or her brain is at its most malleable and most responsive to exercise, which improves the child's chances of proper development in the future.

Thoseat highest risk of developing CP are:

premature babies,
newborn babies with neurological problems and
children with abnormal brain findings.

The basis for early detection of CP remains:

a detailed history,
developmental assessment,
a reliable neurological or neuromotor examination.

Brain imaging is also recommended as part of the diagnosis.

Other causes of motor delays should be ruled out in the diagnosis, and genetic or metabolic diseases should be excluded in case of abnormal findings.

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What are the characteristics of neurological abnormalities in the first year of life?

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