Cognitive and academic profiles in children with cerebral palsy: A narrative review

Considerable effort has recently been made to improve the accurate diagnosis of cerebral palsy (CP) in childhood and to establish early intervention aiming to improve functional outcome. Besides the visible motor impairments, cognitive abilities are frequently affected but might remain unrecognised in children with mild forms. On the other hand, some severely disabled children with presumed intellectual disabilities might demonstrate normal-range reasoning capacities. Most studies on this topic have emphasized a variety of cognitive profiles (cognitive level) related to the type of cerebral palsy and the underlying brain lesions (biological level). However, little is known at the behavioural level, namely learning skills and educational achievement.

This narrative review aimed to discuss cognitive and scholastic skills typically affected in children with CP.

Online literature research for studies of cerebral palsy, cognition and academic achievement, extracting all relevant articles regardless of article type.

In children with CP, intellectual disability is frequent and correlated with the degree of motor impairment and early epilepsy. Speech and language problems are prevalent in all forms of CP and might hamper everyday participation on varying levels depending on the degree of motor disability. Most children with CP have neuropsychological deficits affecting predominantly visuospatial functions, attention, and/or executive functions. These problems relate to academic performance and social participation.

An adequate interdisciplinary follow-up of children with CP requires a sensitization of clinicians to the complex topic of cognitive and academic problems in this population and a better synergy between the medical and educational worlds.