Congenital and Acquired Neuromuscular and Genetic Disorders

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Introduction

The realisation that your child has a congenital or acquired disability can be a daunting and fearful situation. There are many support networks and resources available however which aim to help and assist parents and carers in the development of that child.

Giving birth to a child with such disorders can happen to any mother regardless of age, racial or cultural heritage, socioeconomic status, health or lifestyle. According to the WHO, congenital anomalies or birth defects affect one in every 33 infants every year worldwide and result in approximately 3.2 million birth defect related disabilities every year¹.

What is Congenital and Acquired?

A congenital disorder is one which exists at birth and very often before birth. It also can include those conditions which develop within the first month of birth. Congenital disorders vary widely in causation and abnormalities and can be as a result of genetic or chromosomal abnormalities, infection, birth trauma or the environment the fetus was in whilst in the uterus.

Acquired disorders on the other hand develop after birth and can develop over the course of one’s life.

Resource Aims

Understanding how a disorder affects a child’s future health, abilities and lifestyle requirements is very commonly a priority for parents very soon after the birth of that child. The aim of this wiki resource is to provide guidance and information to parents of children with congenital and acquired neuromuscular and genetic disorders. This resource is not designed to provide and exhaustive list of disorders as there are very many. It will include those disorders which are most commonly found in the UK in terms of rates of incidence.

The authors aim to provide information in layman’s terms without clinical jargon. Where the use of such jargon may occur, small popups with explanations are provided when users hover over the terms.

Learning Outcomes

• Discuss the management strategies for children with congenital and acquired neurological disorders
  
  
• Describe and evaluate the current physical activity guidelines for those with congenital and acquired neurological disorders and the evidence underpinning them
  
  
• Identify support networks and relevant resources for severe and/or long term neurological conditions

References

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