“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
About Pediatric Physical Therapy Services at The Therapy Tree
Pediatric Physical Therapists provide support and assistance to children from Birth to 21 years of age, with gross motor skills, core strength, and stability. Gross motor skills include how your child moves when walking, running, jumping, standing on one foot, and how the use of core trunk balance reactions and strength. The Therapy Tree Pediatric Physical Therapy team are experts in human movement and are dedicated to working with children who have a wide variety of difficulties to improve physical movements, strength, balance, walking, large muscle coordination, body alignment, and overall mobility. In addition we evaluate the need for assistive devices such as, orthotics or braces, and work to build your child’s confidence in their interactions with others and daily living skills.
How do I know if my child needs physical therapy?
You may notice that your child is at a different stage than other children of the same age, or wonder if they are having difficulties in movement. At wellness check-ups, your child’s pediatrician may notice gross motor problems that your child is having and write a prescription referring your child to physical therapy.
Conditions Treated by Pediatric Physical Therapy
There are many reasons children benefit from physical therapy. Below is a list of the more common conditions that pediatric physical therapists address and treat.
- Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Balance & Vestibular Disorders
- Birth Defects and Complications
- Cerebral Palsy
- Complications of Prematurity
- Contracture of tendons
- Down Syndrome
- Developmental Delays or Disabilities
- Impaired Gross Motor Coordination
- Guillian-Barre Syndrome
- Low Muscle Tone
- Muscular Dystrophy
- Neuromuscular problems
- Orthopedic related conditions
- Plagiocephaly
- Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Spinal cord injury
- Sprains/Strains of Knee/Ankle/Elbow/Wrist
- Torticollis
- Visual Difficulties
Developmental Milestones & Red Flags
Below are both standard developmental gross motor skills milestones and signs you can look for to determine if your child might need physical therapy. Children develop at different rates, which is why these are general milestones and the overall health and well-being of a child should always be taken into consideration.
Our physical therapists provide evaluation and direct therapy services for ages birth to young adult. We provide Free Developmental Screening for children ages birth to five years of age. If you are interested in a screening or evaluation for your child, email us at info@thetherapytree.org, or call The Therapy Tree at (847)265-7300.
What happens after the screening?
Once we complete the developmental screening, our therapists will provide you with a Screening Summary Sheet. If the therapists who performed the screening feel that a full evaluation is needed, they will request in writing, that your pediatrician prescribe a physical therapy evaluation on the Screening Summary.
What happens if a full evaluation is suggested?
Your child will be evaluated to determine if physical therapy would be of benefit and what areas of physical development need improvement if physical therapy is needed. We strive to provide you with the most comfort, knowledge, and confidence in understanding what pediatric physical therapy will accomplish.
After the evaluation, if it is determined that physical therapy is necessary, we will address in-depth, specific difficulties that are occurring in the child’s motor development and work together to develop an individualized treatment plan along with teaching tools for parent/caregiver to continue skill-building in the home, to improve or eliminate these problem areas. The use of different techniques, both traditional and complimentary, along with collaboration across multiple specialties available at The Therapy Tree, provide children the best possible outcome for increasing mobility, independence, confidence, and overall life skills.
Techniques Used By Physical Therapy
Our Pediatric Physical Therapists evaluate and determine your child’s specific needs, develop an individualized treatment plan, which includes specific goals, activities, home support activities, and techniques they feel will be most beneficial. No child is the same; therefore, no treatment plan is the same.
Pediatric Physical Therapy Techniques used at The Therapy Tree
The use of different techniques, both traditional and complimentary, along with collaboration across multiple specialties including speech language pathology, occupational therapy, oral-motor feeding therapy, or counseling services available at The Therapy Tree, provides children with the best possible tools for increasing mobility, independence, confidence, and overall life skills.
The type of techniques and methods used as well as the length of time services take is dependent on varying factors. Issues such as what problems need to be addressed, how willing your child is to work during sessions and what their desired goals are if they are old enough to help determine them, the strength and available help of you and your child’s support system, and the level of difficulty that needs to be overcome play a role. Sometimes sessions are set on a weekly basis, taking learning new skills and activities gradually and at a steady pace. Other times sessions can be more or less frequent based on your child’s particular needs at the time.
Our Pediatric Physical Therapy Team
The Therapy Tree Pediatric Physical Therapists are responsible for evaluating patient conditions and needs, developing a treatment plan for patients, determining activities and specific goals to be accomplished, and determining the need for collaboration with other therapists here, including speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, and/or counseling services. Our therapists provide therapy with compassion and enthusiasm, while focusing on improving the lives of families as a whole. Just as much as we teach and help our pediatric patients, they become some of our greatest challenges, joy, and teachers.
For more information on the therapeutic services we offer adults, families, and others, including massage therapy, yoga, and other wellness classes, please visit our Adult Services and our Wellness Center pages.