We have talked to you about the problem of minimal cerebral dysfunction in children, which could affect many boys and girls who are of school age and can remain for a lifetime if appropriate measures are not taken.
When we take our little one to the specialist because from different fields, mainly the school, they tell us that he needs an assessment because there are certain difficulties in the acquisition of the given contents, many times we can find that one of the tests they perform is to check the called neurological signs. But, What are neurological signs?.
Whenever the existence of any type of childhood brain damage is suspected, the specialist who explores our child will assess the presence or absence of the so-called neurological signs. These are divided between the so-called major neurological signs and minor neurological signs.
Major neurological signs
When the child has a major brain injury we will be talking about what is known by the name of major disability. That is, there is some kind of serious alteration in the child's nervous system, which is easily detectable by specific neuroimaging tests (for example, magnetic resonance imaging).
An injury to the nervous system, when we talk about major disability, causes different types of disorders such as motor, cognitive and / or sensory disorders, showing permanent effects over time that can vary over time depending on the type of treatment.
These so-called major disabilities are usually expressed by brain injuries, which translates into an increase in so-called major neurological signs. These damages that can be caused in the nervous system are usually of perinatal origin, and the main major neurological signs of childhood are, among others:
- Open wounds in the brain.
- Eat severe long-term.
- Severe head injuries
- Brain damage due to lack of oxygen (ischemic hypoxic encephalopathy).
- Tumors in the nervous system
- Severe epilepsy
Minor neurological signs
The minor neurological signs they are the expression of those alterations of the nervous system that have a major manifestation during the first years of life and that tend to decrease with the passage of time, giving rise to calls minor disabilities.
This type of disability (less serious than major disabilities) may be due to alterations during the prenatal, perinatal or postnatal phase, and among which we can find those child populations called biological risk.
Generally, these signs are usually presented inversely to the level of development of the child; that is: the lower the intellectual capacity, the greater the number of minor neurological signs. However, it can happen many times that Minor neurological signs may occur in children with normal intelligence (within the group we have talked about recently: Minimum Cerebral Dysfunction).
Certain neurological signs that occur in childhood can be of evolutionary origin, representing a state of neurological immaturity that is gradually being overcome, reflected in a decrease in the following signs (among others): delay in the onset of development items (walking, speaking ...), language disorders, delayed laterality definition or slight changes in motor coordination.
The biggest problem we can find in these cases is that we can take time to realize the presence of these signs, mainly when, from the school environment, there are certain objectives that the child does not reach normally.
Therefore, it is very important to recognize and identify the different neurological signs in childhood, both older and younger (it is essential to pay more attention to the latter) to be able to act as early as possible and achieve a very favorable evolution in the child's development.
