Pediatric physical therapy? Is that a thing? Isn’t physical therapy just for adults?
While this may be a new term to you, pediatric physical therapy has been around for about a century, since the Polio epidemic of the 1920s. Pediatric physical therapy is a specialized form of therapeutic rehabilitation aimed at assisting infants, babies, toddlers, and school-aged children in obtaining the skills they need to thrive in their personal, social, educational, and community environments. Skills we often take for granted, like getting in and out of a chair, walking up the stairs, or playing on the playground, can be particularly challenging for some children, especially those with developmental delays or underlying diagnoses (stay tuned for our upcoming blog post on common diagnoses treated in pediatric PT!). That’s where your local pediatric physical therapist can step in and help! Using the power of play, pediatric physical therapists work to assist children in learning new skills, stretching or strengthening muscles, improving endurance, or unlearning poor movement patterns. They are your gross motor specialists, meaning they work on skills that involve the large muscle groups of your body that allow you to perform big motor movements such as walking, running, jumping, or climbing. Underlying elements such as balance, coordination, strength, and flexibility are also addressed in order to allow your child to develop well-rounded skills. If necessary, your pediatric physical therapist will help you obtain additional pieces of equipment such as orthotics or adaptive devices (such as specialized seating or mobility devices like wheelchairs or walkers). As members of your primary care team, your physical therapist will be in communication with the rest of your child’s health team, including pediatrician, specialists, and other therapy providers, to ensure fluidity in your child’s care.
Why do I need to go to a pediatric physical therapist? Why can’t we just go to a regular physical therapy office?
Consider this - if you were to take your child to the playground and tell them to do ten repetitions of the monkey bars three times, they would probably look at you like you are crazy and then proceed to run off and play on every element of the play structure BUT the monkey bars. In a standard outpatient orthopedic physical therapy clinic (“regular” physical therapy, if you will), adults are guided through directed sets and repetitions of specific exercises. However, our delightful children have not yet developed the attention span or interest in standing around and doing repetitions and sets of the same exercise, over and over. In pediatric physical therapy, we maximize the amount of fun and engagement your child can have while balancing it with work by manipulating play environments for our purposes. By reworking the traditional adult physical therapy framework, your pediatric physical therapist is able to achieve a myriad of outcomes with the help of some toys, a little bit of silliness, and a whole lot of play.
How do I know if my child will benefit from the expertise of a pediatric physical therapist?
While every child develops at their own speed, some instances when you may want to seek out the support of a pediatric physical therapist include:
Kid’s Perspective Physical Therapy: Who are we?
Kids’ Perspective Physical Therapy provides pediatric care for children who have difficulty with movement due to neurologic or orthopedic impairment. The four staff physical therapists have a combined experience of over 40 years and offer schedule flexibility throughout the day. Each therapist’s schedule is designed so a child receiving care is seen for an hour each visit. The number of children each therapist takes on is limited so that the ultimate level of attention and specialized therapy can be offered.
Kids’ Perspective started in 2002 when Kris Nakaji, one of the owners of KPPT, became determined to offer children and their families a way to improve strength, alignment and movement without the constraints of company bureaucracy or insurance limitations. Kris strongly believes that treatment plans should depend on each individual child and family, not on a simple diagnosis or profit margins. The most important consideration is that the child gets the intervention he or she needs to progress to a strong foundation. Once this foundation is achieved, the child can continue to grow and succeed on his or her own, through normal play, sports and activities with other children. It’s the job of our team to get them there!
Pediatric physical therapy
The happiest clinic on earth, making changes to last a lifetime!
