Paediatric physiotherapy focuses on helping children develop, improve, or regain their physical abilities through specific exercises and treatments. It can treat a wide range of conditions including developmental delays, neurological disorders such as cerebral palsy, musculoskeletal issues or injuries. Often a pediatric physiotherapist will use pay play based therapies, exercises and movement based training to enhance motor skills, coordination and balance in children. The aim of pediatric physio is to help children reach their developmental milestones, improve their abilities, gain social integration/inclusion and promote independence. Early intervention often leads to improved outcomes.
Common conditions treated by a paediatric physio
Muscle strains and ligament sprains: Just like adults children often strain their muscles, sprain ligaments, have knocks and bumps. A pediatric physio is specialised in helping these injuries specifically in children.
Developmental Delays: When children don’t meet the expected childhood milestones, such as crawling or walking, it causes concern for everyone. Therapy can be used to target these milestones.
Neurological conditions: Conditions that a paediatric therapist can help with include spina bifida, muscular dystrophy, duchenne muscular dystrophy, acquired brain injuries, stroke, spinal cord injuries & developmental coordination disorder.
Pediatric physiotherapy plays an important role in helping children with these neurological conditions by enhancing mobility, preventing secondary complications, and improving the child’s quality of life.
The role of physiotherapy intervention
The sooner the treatment starts the better, as early treatment can help correct issues before they turn into a much bigger or more chronic issue. Therapy takes advantage of the child's natural ability to adapt and learn new movements as a child's brain is much more plastic than an adults, therefore new neurological pathways are much easier to create.
Early treatment can help prevent complications such as joint stiffness, muscle tightness and bad posture, especially in the causes of cerebral palsy or post brain injury. If a muscle is sustained in a shortened position it will lead to contractures in the muscle and could lead to the joint losing that required range of motion. This is essential to enable a child to stand, walk or even during cleaning.
Treatment techniques used by a paediatric physio
Play based therapy: As the name suggests, play based therapy uses fun activities to help enable a child to do the required exercises or drills to help them to improve. This is important as getting a child to perform 3 sets of 10 of a standard exercise multiple times a day would almost be impossible.
Stretching and strengthening exercises: Gaining full joint movement is essential, so is improving the child's core strength, to allow them to sit and balance. Strengthening their legs to allow them to stand, walk and run is also important to allow the child to join in with their peers at school.
Balance & gait training: Balance and walking or running are essential for the child's independence. The therapist will put the child through a series of exercises and drills to help them to improve.
Assistive devices: Physios may use walkers, wheelchairs, splints or braces to help the child mobilise or ambulate.
Family education: Teaching parents and other siblings how to continue with these exercises at home goes a long way to help the child develop and continue to improve.
Other benefits of paediatric physio
Improving the child's physical health: Flexibility, strength, gait and coordination are all essential for everyday activities and play.
Improving the child's confidence: A child's confidence is so important, by getting them up to speed with their peers goes a long way to allowing them to develop and take risks like a child should.
Improving social interaction: Improved mobility allows the child to take part in games, play and eventually sports.
Promoting cognitive development: The physical ability of children and movement are closely linked to the brain development in young children.
Helping your child thrive
A paediatric physio is an important tool in the development of children's skills and abilities. Their treatments help a wide range of children from those with more severe neurological difficulties to those with a slight developmental delay.
This looks so fun! We don't do one-on-one activities with our kids enough, but you've definitely made me want to, even if this post is about a family walk! Now that it's cooling down we like going on walks in the evening before bed, and it has been so nice just to get out of the house! We'll have to try those Clif bars! The Oatmeal Cookie one sounds amazing!
I've missed your blog. So happy that I thought to check out your fb page and come visit. I'm never disappointed. Your free printable is the cutest thing ever. My children would love to do this daily.
How about winter walks though, you participate in those?! ? Oh wait... You're in Arizona (or somewhere) with sunshine year round. It's about to be a blizzard mess with snow to my waist in a couple months!!! =) Lol
Monica, long time no see!! I'm glad to hear you're doing well! Haha we definitely don't have to deal with blizzards but we have the opposite, 115 degree summer days, so I feel ya on certain parts of the year being near impossible to go on walks. Actually I feel like our "winter" months are coming to an end and we can finally venture outside without it feeling like an oven haha! ?
We are big on family walks. All great benefits, especially getting some of that energy out, haha!
My kids and I love going on walks! But, our neighborhood isn't really the best for it. It isn't horrible, but it's not particularly safe either. I'm hoping that by this time next year, we will be in a new house and in a new, family-friendly neighborhood. Then we will be walking all the time!
I hope you are too Marietta! I could definitely understand that situation, I've lived in some places before that were safe but were just...questionable haha.
Hi Jessica! Family walks are the best ? We have some of the best conversations with the girls when we go on walks. We definitely need to do them more often
Thanks for sharing us,