Pediatric physical therapy is a specialized area of treatment aimed at addressing a child’s gross motor and cognitive development and maximizing a child’s ability to move about their environment independently.
Pediatric physical therapists use the general principles of physical therapy and apply them in the context of a child’s development.
Treatment strategies focus on improving a child’s ability to explore and navigate their environment. Pediatric physical therapy exercises target:
Physical therapists specialize in gross motor skills, which are big movements that use your entire body and require large muscle groups in the arms, torso, and legs.
Gross motor movements include:
The challenges children face in their motor and cognitive development come in many shapes and sizes, but so too do the treatments. No matter what hurdles your child has to overcome, Carolina Peds Physical Therapy has the expertise to help.
A developmental delay is diagnosed by a pediatric physical therapist when a child is not able to achieve a gross motor activity that is expected based on their age.
For instance, children typically walk around 12 months of age. If a child cannot walk independently by that age, physical therapy can help the child achieve this gross motor skill milestone by helping them with their balance, coordination, and strength.
Other children have more difficulty with higher-level coordination, such as completing jumping jacks, dexterously using their hands and fingers, or navigating stairs with an alternating foot pattern. Pediatric physical therapists can likewise help improve the coordination needed for these activities.
Pediatric physical therapists also specialize in treating neurological disorders. This includes children born with:
Children born with a neurological condition often experience increased muscle tone, which causes stiffness in their limbs and difficulty controlling their movement patterns.
To help, pediatric physical therapists can utilize:
Another common condition that pediatric physical therapists specialize in treating is gait deviations.
Pediatric physical therapists can help correct toe-walking by providing range-of-motion and targeted strengthening activities to help normalize gait. Likewise, pediatric physical therapists are trained to correct the gait of children that walk with in-toeing or with a pigeon-toed gait.
Children who frequently fall when running or walking can also benefit from physical therapy services. A pediatric physical therapist will help them to improve their balance and coordination to minimize such accidents.
Finally, pediatric physical therapists are also trained to treat orthopedic conditions such as:
If your child requires any of the above services, look no further. Carolina Peds Physical Therapy has several locations throughout North Carolina.
Contact us to make an appointment and start your child on their road to recovery.
