Physical Therapy FAQs
Physical therapy facilitates growth in a variety of skill areas related to strength and movement, including gross motor skills, such as crawling or walking. Our goal is to have the child find success and build independence in daily activities.
Physical therapists can help your child by first evaluating what is preventing him or her from performing activities effectively. The therapist will assess qualities like strength and mobility to determine what interventions will benefit your child. A physical therapist will likely also spend time to observe your child move, and as experts of movement will be able to identify what is affecting optimal motion. Once the physical therapist identifies the problem, they will create an individualized plan of care to address all components that contribute to your child’s mobility. This may involve strengthening weak muscle groups, stretching hypomobile structures, and conducting functional mobility activities that break down tasks step by step to reinforce each component before performing the activity as a whole. Physical therapists can also help your child learn to use new adaptive equipment. Whatever the impairment may be, a physical therapist will work to identify and address it with specific interventions to help your child return to play, school, and recreational activities.
Sessions are individualized and will look different for every child. In general, the sessions will start with a “warm up,” followed by structured activities (with breaks in between) based on your child’s individualized goals. The session will end with a “cool down” or transition activity. Depending on your child’s goals most activities will be focused on core/trunk strength, lower extremity strength, balance, coordination, gait/running, ball skills, jumping and endurance.