Cerebral Palsy and Neurological Conditions

Preparing for your I-CAN v6 assessment

Disclaimer: This article reflects publicly available information about the I-CAN v6 framework as at August 2026. It does not constitute professional disability support, medical, or legal advice. For personalised guidance, contact the NDIA on 1800 800 110 or a disability advocacy organisation.

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Neurological conditions — cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, motor neurone disease, acquired brain injury, Huntington's disease, and others — share a set of preparation challenges for the I-CAN v6 that are worth addressing specifically.

These challenges include: describing conditions that affect function in ways that are not always visible or consistent; documenting fatigue as a real and significant functional barrier; capturing the difference between stable and progressive conditions; and representing "good day versus bad day" functioning in a way that reflects the full realistic range.

This guide addresses those challenges across cerebral palsy and the neurological condition spectrum.

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The Three Universal Challenges for Neurological Conditions

1. Invisible Functional Impacts

Many of the most significant impacts of neurological conditions — fatigue, pain, cognitive effects, sensory disturbance, spasticity, tremor — are not visible to someone meeting you for the first time in an assessment room. The assessor may see a person who appears to function adequately. They may not see what that function costs, what it precludes for the rest of the day, or what happens on a difficult day.

Your preparation document bridges this gap.

2. Variable Functioning

Most neurological conditions involve significant day-to-day or period-to-period variation in functional capacity. MS has relapses and remissions. Parkinson's has on-off cycles. CP functioning varies with fatigue, temperature, and stress. Even stable conditions have days when everything is harder.

The I-CAN v6 is designed to assess typical functioning, not a single day's snapshot. Your preparation needs to describe your realistic range — not your best day, not your worst, but the honest distribution of your daily experience.

3. Progressive Versus Stable Conditions

Some neurological conditions are stable — CP, in most cases, does not worsen as a condition (though the functional consequences of having it often do with age). Others are progressive — MS, MND, Parkinson's, Huntington's. These two types require different emphases in preparation.

For stable conditions: Focus on current daily functional needs across all 12 domains, with honesty about what has changed with age even if the underlying condition has not.

For progressive conditions: Document current functioning AND trajectory. Describe the rate of change, what you have lost capacity for in recent years, and whether decline is ongoing. This matters for plan design — supports may need to increase over time.

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Domain-by-Domain: Neurological Conditions

Mobility

Mobility is typically a central domain for CP, MS, Parkinson's, and MND.

For CP: Transfer ability, ambulatory capacity (distance, speed, surfaces), mobility aid use, spasticity impact on movement.

For MS: Mobility on good days versus bad days; fatigue-related mobility limits (may walk 500m in the morning, cannot manage 100m in the afternoon); heat sensitivity and its effect on mobility; any recent significant decline.

For Parkinson's: Freezing episodes, falls, gait disturbance, on-off medication cycles and their effect on mobility; ability to transfer, dress, and navigate independently.

For MND: Rate of progression; current mobility capacity; assistive technology; what was possible six months ago versus now.

Self Care

The interaction of neurological impairment with self-care is highly specific to each condition — but the key principle is the same: describe what you can do, what you need assistance with, how long it takes, and the fatigue cost.

For CP: Physical assistance requirements; fine motor limitations (dressing, grooming); fatigue impact of morning self-care.

For MS: Self-care on good days versus bad days; heat sensitivity during showering; cognitive fatigue affecting task completion; upper limb weakness affecting grooming.

For Parkinson's: Fine motor difficulties (dressing, grooming); reduced movement speed; medication timing and its effect on morning self-care.

For MND: Progressive loss of upper limb function; what was manageable previously that now requires assistance; current level of physical assistance.

General Tasks and Demands

Routine management, medication, and safety.

For many neurological conditions, medication management is complex and highly functionally significant. Describe: medication complexity, monitoring requirements, what happens when doses are missed, support required for medication management.

Safety is also relevant — fall risk, inability to respond to emergencies, cognitive changes affecting safety judgement.

Communication

Communication is affected to varying degrees across neurological conditions.

For CP with dysarthria: Intelligibility, speech fatigue, use of AAC, the difference between familiar and unfamiliar communication partners.

For MND: Rate of speech deterioration; current communication capacity; AAC planning if relevant.

For MS: Cognitive fatigue effects on communication; word-finding difficulties; reduced processing speed under demand.

For Parkinson's: Voice volume and clarity; hypophonia; changes in communication over the course of the day.

Mental & Emotional Health

Depression and anxiety are significantly elevated across neurological conditions. For progressive conditions, the psychological burden of living with ongoing decline is real and significant.

What to document: Any mental health conditions; how they interact with the neurological condition; current treatment and whether it is accessible; the emotional impact of functional loss or decline.

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The Fatigue Documentation

Fatigue in neurological conditions deserves specific attention because it is consistently under-documented and consistently significant.

Neurological fatigue — unlike ordinary tiredness — is a direct consequence of the condition, does not resolve with rest in the same way, and can be profoundly disabling even in people who appear physically functional.

How to document fatigue effectively:

• What activities trigger it? Sustained physical effort, cognitive demand, heat, social interaction?
• How severe does it become? Describe on a scale if helpful — can you complete basic tasks, or are you unable to function at all?
• What is the recovery time? After a demanding activity, how long before you can do anything else?
• What does fatigue prevent? What can you not do on a high-fatigue day that you can do on a low-fatigue day?
• How does it vary across the day? Many people with neurological fatigue have a limited window of functional capacity each day.

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Ageing with Neurological Conditions

For adults who have lived with CP or other neurological conditions from birth or early life, the interaction of the condition with normal ageing is increasingly well-documented — and often produces significant functional change in the fourth, fifth, and sixth decades.

Adults with CP commonly experience increased pain, fatigue, and musculoskeletal complications in their 30s and 40s. This is not deterioration of the neurological condition itself, but a predictable consequence of the physical demands of lifelong disability management.

If your functional capacity has changed significantly in recent years despite a stable diagnosis, document this trajectory explicitly. Describe what you could do ten years ago that you can no longer do, when the change accelerated, and what the current trend is.

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Evidence That Carries Weight

For CP:

• OT functional assessment (particularly home and community assessment)
• Physiotherapy report (transfers, mobility, fatigue, spasticity)
• Annual report from treating team if you have one
• Carer statement documenting daily assistance provided

For MS:

• Neurologist's letter including functional impact and relapse history
• OT assessment
• Fatigue diary showing variation across the day and between periods
• MS Australia or similar organisation support notes

For Parkinson's:

• Neurologist's assessment including motor function, on-off cycle, falls history
• OT assessment
• Physiotherapy mobility assessment
• Medication schedule and timing effects on function

For MND:

• Neurologist's assessment including functional status and rate of decline
• Allied health team summary
• Communication assessment if speech is affected
• Equipment prescription history showing progression of needs

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ICANReady guides you through all 12 I-CAN domains with prompts that help you describe the full functional impact of neurological conditions — including the fluctuating, invisible, and progressive aspects that are most often missed.

Try ICANReady free →

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Sources: Centre for Disability Studies I-CAN v6 framework, Cerebral Palsy Alliance (cerebralpalsy.org.au), MS Australia, Parkinson's Australia, MND Australia, Disability Advocacy Network Australia (dana.org.au)