The symptoms of Cerebral Palsy depend upon the location and degree of damage to the brain. In mild instances, only a slight awkwardness might be evidenced. In severe cases, children may be unable to use their limbs, completely dependent on caregivers, or profoundly mentally retarded. There are several general categories of CP, which include include spastic, athetoid, ataxic, and mixed varieties.

• 70-80% of CP cases are considered spastic. In spastic cerebral palsy, the patients muscles are permantently contracted. Patients with leg spasticity often develop "scissors-gait"—in which their knees bend inward and nearly touch while walking.
• 10-20% of CP cases are athetoid. Unlike patients with spastic CP, affected muscles of patients with athetoid CP fail to contract normally, often resulting in uncontrollable drooling.
• 5-10% of CP patients have ataxic CP. Primarily, ataxics have poor balance and depth perception.
• A small percentage of patients with CP will display a combination of spastic, athetoid, and ataxic symptoms. This is known as mixed CP.

Most patients with CP have motor impairment in their legs, but many also have impaired arm movement. To indicate which limbs are affected most, the terms diplegia, paraplegia, quadriplegia, and hemiplegia are used.

1. In paraplegia, the legs but not the arms are affected.
2. In hemiplegia the limbs on one side of the body are affected.
3. In diplegia, both legs are affected as are both arms, but to a lesser degree than the legs.
4. In quadriplegia, all four limbs are affected equally.

Associated Disorders

In addition to gross and fine motor dysfunction, children with cerebral palsy are much more likely than normal children to suffer from other deficiencies:

• Mental impairment or mental retardation is the most common deficiency, affecting over two-thirds of all patients with CP.
• Epilepsy 15 to 60 percent of all children with cerebral palsy also suffer from epilepsy.
• "Failure to Thrive": In moderate and severe cerebral palsy, especially spastic quadriplegia, it is not uncommon for the brain areas responsible for growth and development to be damaged. Cerebral palsy children will develop more slowly than normal children. Low body weight, shortness, and lack of sexual development are typical.
• Optical disorders: Children with cerebral palsy are much more likely than normal children to have ocular abnormalities. When brain areas affecting the left and right eye muscles are affected numerous disorders such as double-vision can develop. (Cicatricial retinopathy, cortical visual impairment, hemianopia, strabismus, and other deficits.)
• Impaired hearing and touch sensation are frequently found in cerebral palsy patients.
• Back and Leg Pain: Two-thirds of the subjects in one survey reported some form of chronic pain, most often in their backs and legs.