Written by: Dr. Laura Falcon, DPT – Triumph Pediatric Center
Every October marks the celebration of National Physical Therapy Month by the American Physical Therapy Association. This is an opportunity to raise awareness about the benefits of physical therapy.
Here at Triumph Pediatric Center, we are grateful for the abundance of care our physical ttherapists provide for your child. You might be thinking, how does a physical therapist provide care to children and what does that look like? You may be more familiar with the idea of physical therapist helping you recover from a sports injury or after surgery, but physical therapist offer care to a wide variety of pediatric conditions. Let’s take a deeper dive on the role of a pediatric physical therapist
What is a Pediatric Physical Therapist?
Pediatric physical therapists work with children and their families to assist children in reaching their fullest potential and to be able to function independently. They are involved in promoting active participation in home, school, and community environments. Physical therapists receive extensive education movement analysis, gross motor development, and body systems and then use their clinical reasoning during examination, evaluation, diagnosis, and intervention to recommend appropriate treatment and create a plan of care. Pediatric PTs have unique talents and professional knowledge of children with many different conditions and strengths.
Pediatric physical therapists can facilitate the following in their sessions:
- Gross motor skills, balance, and coordination
- Range of motion and stretching
- Lower body and core strengthening
- Acquisition of developmental milestones
- Positioning and handling for infants
- Functional mobility and gait training
- Injury recovery and prevention
- Parent and caregiver education
At Triumph Pediatric Center, our physical therapists have experience working with conditions such as:
- Autism
- Plagiocephaly
- Down’s Syndrome
- Cerebral Palsy
- Developmental Delay
- Torticollis
- Sensory Processing Disorder
- Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome
We take pride in knowing our therapist work hard with our children and families to provide high quality care and utilize play-based interventions in our FunFactory sensory gym to help our children reach their milestones and beyond! Our physical therapists creatively develop family-centered goals and make their sessions fun and engaging so your child truly gets the most out of each and every session.
If you have concerns about your children’s development or gross motor skills, talk to one of our highly qualified physical therapists.
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