Substantial handicap means the individual s needs cannot be adequately met by participating in those social, educational, vocational, recreational, medical, or other resources which generally are expected to be available to other non-handicapped individuals in the community. Mental retardation refers to significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period. Mental retardation is usually diagnosed by a psychologist or physician. The impact may vary from slight to very severe. The four most common types of cerebral palsy are spastic, athetoid, ataxic and mixed.
Diagnosis is made by a physician based on history, observation and medical tests.
It is the most common permanent physical disability of childhood. About one-third of the children with cerebral palsy have normal intelligence. About one-half of the children with cerebral palsy have some type of seizure disorder. Epilepsy is a clinical disorder involving impairment of consciousness, characterized by paroxysmal attacks of loss of consciousness, convulsive movements, or disturbances of feeling or behavior. These transient episodes or seizures are associated with excessive nerve cell discharges occurring diffusely or focally in the brain.