Phases of Typical and Atypical Child Development, Correlation in Cerebral Palsy

Motor development is known for its constant evolution, as it allows a baby to develop his motor skills and perform complex and coordinated movements. Such knowledge on the subject is extremely important for the physical therapist, so that he is able to deal with certain situations, which include pathological conditions and developmental delays, requiring intervention and rehabilitation, thus making implications for cerebral palsy (CP).

Typical motor development is a continuous process of motor behavior, where evolution occurs throughout the life cycle. When this development occurs in the expected pattern, affecting motor behavior, it is considered an atypical development. The study of motor development is related to age, but we must remember the individuality of each individual in relation to movement abilities and skills [1].

CP is infantile encephalopathy, in the motor phase that manifests itself in the developmental phase of infantile encephalopathy (up to three years of age) [2].

The main factor that affects CP is the motor impairment where, consequently, the body biomechanics and the functional performance are physical [3].

In view of this, this study aimed to analyze the phases of typical and atypical child development; to promote the evolution of its treatment through the intervention and rehabilitation of the CP.

To achieve the objective proposed in this study, articles were selected from the Scielo and Pubmed databases using keywords such as: Cerebral palsy, childhood motor skills, development. We found 40 articles, which were found in English and Portuguese and 37 were excluded because initially they were evaluation methods and not physiotherapeutic rehabilitation.

Remaining 3 articles for review with Qualis A1 in the large evaluation area 23 or with an impact factor greater than 3.0.

The research results were described in Table 1.

The child's development from the neuropsychosensory and motor point of view depends on the maturation process of the central nervous system (CNS), especially in the first year of life, they demonstrated that the maturation process is related to the degree of myelination, arborization and formation of synapses of the nerve cells in the CNS, which gradually inhibit primitive reflex activities, passing through a transition phase and, finally, assuming voluntary command of these activities, which will only remain in pathological conditions in patients with brain injury. The maturation of the CNS allows, in addition to inhibiting the primitive reflex activity present in premature newborns (NB), the development of reactions of rectification, protection and balance (postural reflex activity), intellectual development and sensory functions in a harmonic and integrated [4].

At this level, motricity and tonus disorders are manifested by specific characteristics, such as lack of control over movements, adaptive changes in muscle length and, in some cases, can lead to bone deformities. This occurs in periods when the child has an accelerated pace of development, compromising the process of acquiring basic motor milestones (rolling over, sitting, crawling, walking) and also in activities of daily living (bathing, eating, dressing) [5].

It is known that the main alteration present in children with cerebral palsy (CP) is motor impairment, which causes several changes resulting from encephalopathy, with consequent changes in body biomechanics. In addition, the child may present cognitive, sensory, visual and auditory disorders that are added to the motor alterations [3].

Typical motor development is the constantly evolving set of characteristics. From birth, the child undergoes profound changes, going from a condition of total dependence controlled only by reflex movements, to becoming an independent being with its own desires. These changes occur mainly in the motor, sensory and psychic areas. Atypical motor development has the persistence of primitive reflexes, insufficiency of balance reactions, hypotonia, hypertonia or fluctuation, presence of tonic reflexes, stereotyped movements, poor without selectivity,

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Funding: “This research received no external funding”

Data Availability Statement: In this section, please provide details regarding where data supporting reported results can be found, including links to publicly archived datasets analyzed or generated during the study.

Conflicts of Interest: “The authors declare no conflict of interest.” Authors must identify and declare any personal circumstances or interest that may be perceived as inappropriately influencing the representation or interpretation of reported research results. Any role of the funders in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results must be declared in this section. If there is no role, please state “The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results”.