As they grow, your child wants to become more independent. How often has your child said, “I’ll do it myself!”? Likely more times than you can remember. Heightened self-esteem gives a child the confidence necessary to practice skills, and pediatric physical therapy provides the boost a child may need for this. Pediatric physical therapy is beneficial for many children. The pediatric physical therapists at Hogg Therapy focus on improving your child’s abilities and celebrating their successes during sessions.

Habilitation vs. Rehabilitation

A common misconception surrounding physical therapy for kids is that physical therapy is only for those recovering from an illness or injury. Rehabilitative PT is for those individuals. Rehabilitation assists people with regaining skills that have been lost. On the other hand, habilitation helps children attain, maintain, and improve gross motor skills necessary for daily living.

Milestones & Pediatric Physical Therapy

We often meet parents concerned because their child has not been meeting developmental milestones. We like to remind you that milestones criteria are created using the average range of ages taken from medical studies and that every child develops differently. Kids who establish milestone skills outside the average range may benefit from physical therapy for children, but it’s not necessarily a requirement. Our team of therapists performs a thorough evaluation of every child we see. We work closely with your child’s pediatrician and other service providers to ensure the plan we create is ideally suited to your child’s needs and strengths.

What Can Pediatric Physical Therapy Do for My Child?

Not every child we serve will need to improve in every area, but pediatric physical therapy can help develop several areas that are essential for daily living:

• Range of motion: How far joints can bend and stretch
• Strength
• Balance
• Posture
• Muscle tone: Tone is the natural resistance of muscle tissue - increased tone results in stiffness, and decreased tone causes floppiness of muscles.

The human body works as an intertwined unit, so you may see us working on skills your child has mastered. This is because every movement of their body affects, and is affected by, the action of other areas in the body.

Working on Pediatric Physical Therapy at Home

Since children are growing while receiving pediatric PT, you need to help your child practice what they learn during our sessions at home. Growing joints and muscles are easier to manipulate, and your child will have a more positive outcome from pediatric physical therapy if activities are worked on daily.

How do you get your child to want to participate in physical therapy at home? The same way we do here at Hogg Therapy - by making it fun. Children naturally desire to move and play games and are much more likely to engage in something if it’s fun. Specialized equipment is not a requirement for helping your child at home. Here are a few things you can do right at home:

• Core strengthening: Allow your child to put as many easy-to-remove stickers as they like on the bottoms of their feet. Few children will say no to that. Then, have your child sit on a balance ball facing a wall as they remove the stickers one at a time to place them on a sheet of paper on the wall. The action of bending and raising their core while maintaining balance will engage and strengthen core muscles.
• Gross motor skills: Have your child blow bubbles and then chase them, trying to pop them before they hit the ground. This game improves gross motor skills and hand-eye coordination. If your child is receiving speech-language therapy, the movement of the mouth necessary to blow will help enhance skills in that area.
• Improve mobility: Hop in a pool. The buoyancy of the water relieves pressure on your child’s joints while providing more resistance than air, making it an excellent way for your child to exercise and improve endurance.

Reaching Out to Hogg Therapy

Contact us today to complete a brief screening over the phone that will help us determine which services may be best for your child. You can also use the interactive screening tool on our website. We have offices in Richmond and Berea, KY, and are happy to serve the areas of Winchester, Irvine, McKee, Annville, Mount Vernon, Brodhead, Richmond, Berea, Livingston, and Lexington, KY.