FREQUENCY OF ASSOCIATED DIFFICULTIES OF PERSONS WITH CEREBRAL PARALYSIS
Cerebral palsy is a group of permanent disorders of movement and posture that causelimitations in the activities and are the result of non-progressive disorders of the immaturebrain or the developing brain. Motor disorders are often associated with disordersof the senses, perception, cognition, communication, behavior, epilepsy, hearing, visualimpairment and secondary musculoskeletal problems. The aim of this study is toexamine the prevalence of associated difficulties of persons with cerebral palsy in thefour cantons of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) and to determinewhether there is a statistically significant difference in the representation of associateddifficulties between the cantons. The study was conducted on a sample of 120respondents, persons with cerebral palsy from four FBiH cantons. The total sample ofrespondents was divided into 4 sub-samples of respondents. The results of the studyshowed that of the associated difficulties in persons with cerebral palsy, speech difficultiesin 56.60%, intellectual disabilities 34.90%, visual impairment in 32.50%, epilepsy20.90%, behavioral disorders 7.60% and autism in 2.40%. No statistically significantdifference was found between cantons in the representation of associated difficultiesfor persons with cerebral palsy.Key words: cerebral palsy–associated difficulties–hearing impairment–visualimpairment–speech difficulties–intellectual disabilities.