Ataxia is a rare disorder that affects both children and adults. I was quite surprise to find that very little statistics have been conducted on ataxia. this may be due to the understanding that Ataxia is not a specific disorder, rather, a condition can cause ataxia including multiple sclerosis, head trauma, cerebral palsy and infections.

Ataxia affects a child’s coordination, balance and speech while some children are born with ataxia as a result of genetics, others develop it in a progressive matter. Signs and symptoms of Acute Cerebellar Ataxia include:

• Frequent stumbling
• Impaired coordination affecting arms or legs
• Unsteady gait
• Uncontrolled eye movement
• Difficulty performing fine motor task
• headaches

The following are facts and statistics on the Ataxia disorder:

• It is a degenerative disease of the nervous system
• Symptoms, often mimic being drunk in adults such as slurred speech
• Age of symptom can vary from childhood to late adulthood
• rare recessive genetic disorder
• occurs between 1 out of 40,000 and 1 out of 100,000
• The word ataxia refers to clumsiness or a loss of balance and coordination
• The ataxia gene was first identified in 1993
• Ataxia is inherited
• Ataxia is a sign of an underlying disorder
• It is caused by damage to different areas of the central nervous system
• The most common symptom in children is an unsteady gait
• In some cases, ataxia can present itself rapid while in others, it is progressive.
• The most common cause of acute ataxia in children are excessive drug ingestion and drug intoxications
• There are from 50 to 100 different types of Ataxia.