United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

This might be a stupid question to ask but i cant find the answer any where. My question is do children with bpi have cognitive problems?

Can't speak for everyone, but my son is sharp as a tack even though he spent five (wasted) minutes WEDGED in my pelvic bone. We often remark about how incredibly smart he is. It is really amazing considering the trauma that was his birth.

Don't think any question is stupid! My daughter is 3 1/2 and very intelligent. (We think, , and very strong willed).

Aurora,

Haven't you heard the saying, there is no such thing as a dumb question? Seriously, I think it is a really good question and I think even the experts don't have all the answers themselves. I think cognitive problems can certainly be an issue for some bpi kids if they had lack of oxygen during their birth trauma. Lack of oxygen directly impacts different areas of the brain and can result in issues that present as behavioral, learning difficulties, processing difficulties, etc., etc. Children can even have serious brain damage and death from lack of oxygen, so the spectrum of damage can vary. Also, I think our children can fall behind in various areas because they are so busy trying to catch up on some of the basic physical developmental milestones. I am sure children can have cognitive issues that are completely unrelated to the bpi, but if there was lack of oxygen for any extended amount of time I would tend to be very suspicious regarding the correlation.

And by the way, if that was a stupid question, I would hate to see what people think of some of mine.

my son's trouble showed up in spelling and writing because the brain is not well aware of the bpi hand. He seems to do well in thought processes but things that require coordinated integration of cognitive things translating through the hand like writing or sight reading music to play the piano are difficult. From what I understand in traumatic births that result in bpi the head can often be injured as well or lack of oxygen to the brain which could cause difficulties down the road it would depend on the specific situation the birth I would imagine. I have read of some patients requiring speach therapy and haveing multiple issues they are dealing with.

our son is just 3 and sharp as a tack! HOWEVER.. he has issues. I guess hes just a BOY, but my lord his attention span is zilch. unless we are playing race cars, watching then race on tv or making things crash!

but, no signs of cog delay YET!!!
(keeping my fingers crossed)

Hi, I,too, live by THERE IS NO DUMB QUESTION! As OBPI I was never allowed to speak about it or ask questions;my sentences were all finished for me and I was taught to be seen but not heard. Consequently I always had problems at school with essay type questions and panicked in exams. I had to teach myself to express my opinions. I bluffed my way through the 1st 2 years that I worked out of college but I was the best worker and most productive because I had to work at everything at least 150%.

Could someone please tell me what year Erbs Palsy was correctly identified and given the name??Was it after 1962? Thanks. Carolyn

I just wanted to point something out: Cognitive problems usually have very little to do with intelligence. Very bright people can have cognitive difficulty. It has to do with the way the brain processes information and not with the brain's ability to process information. It seems that frequently children who by virtue of being forced to use the nondominant hand have trouble learning. Sometimes the forced use of the opposite hand is by a brachial plexus injury, and therefore can be linked to a bpi in certain cases.

I feel my sons learning problems (he has a central auditory processing dysfunction) are related to the fact he slept for 23-24 hours a day for the first 2 years. I saw a program this week that suggests the brain develops at a rapid rate in the first year and most development occurs in this time. He has great ability to do puzzles not so good with listening and concentration thus hopeless at school now he is self employed and doing fantastic. They find their way if we give them the encouragement to follow their dreams.

I agree with previous posters, intelligence doesn't mean kids don't have cognitive disabilities (and vice versa) and oxygen deprivation would have more of a role in cognitive disabilities than the actual BPI injury. My dd, very bright, doesn't miss a thing, was deprived of oxygen for 5-10 minutes according to the records, had to be resucitated twice.

Her speech was delayed...common for a lot of kids, not just BPI. Her problems with speech are in areas of sequencing, word retrieval, and cognitive flexiblity (seeing the same thing in different ways). These issues require a "reassembling" of the way she thinks. I also wouldn't be suprised if she has dyslexia. Do I think it's related to her birth? You bet. Can it happen with other kids without this injury, you bet.

She is now finishing her first year in preschool, and what I've learned is that she is not a typical test-taking student. What, she's in preschool you say? Well, she panics when she has to answer questions she knows, add a pressure of time to that and she's losing it. Even simple questions like is it sunny or cloudy today...she'll search your face for cues to be sure she answers correctly. If you're playing and it happens to come up in conversation, she'll answer you correctly immediately... It's putting her in that teacher/student thing that freaks her out. Will she grow out of it? Maybe, but I'll be keeping my eye on it and taking extra care in choosing the right environment for her schooling.

It could also be that she's so sick of people in a teacher position, since she's in therapy so much, that she just shuts down. She's pretty stubborn too