Sorry for the lack of posts during this important month for physical therapists!
I first wanted to highlight a page on my main page that tells you all about what pediatric physical therapy is.
One of the main issues that I am concerned with as a pediatric physical therapist, is how parents can continue to practice the skills that I work on during our physical therapy sessions. I always emphasize to parents that though I may work with their child 1-3 hours a week, they must continue practicing throughout the week in order to help their child reach their goals. I also don’t like to overwhelm parents by giving them complicated activities that add to their busy days, so I try to come up with activities that they would encounter during a typical day.
So with that, I wanted to give some examples of how pediatric physical therapy activities are all around us!
PT activity: Body awareness and single leg balance training
Home activity: Walking around a room with toys and blankets on the floor
How it relates:
- Your child will develop improved standing balance and body awareness as they walk around a room with lots of objects on the floor.
- They will have to look down to monitor their foot placement to make sure they don’t step on toys.
- They will have to spend time standing on 1 leg if they have to take a larger step over larger objects or rolled blankets
toys on floor
PT Activity: Dynamic standing balance walking in tandem (walking along a line 1 foot in front of the other)
Home Activity: Walking along any curbs you find!
How it relates:
- I love using curbs especially because they are all over the place!
- Curbs that have grass on 1 side and the street on the other also provide good contrast to help your child pay attention to their foot placement
- I still recommend being close to your child as they advance their balance
- You can make this harder but placing cones or toys on the curb, encouraging your kiddo to step over them while keeping their balance
PT Activity: Stair training
Home Activity: Using Curbs or any Stairs Available
How it relates:
- Though it’s self-explanatory, I cannot emphasize enough how important stairs/curbs are for improving a number of things.
- Most parents are terrified of their child walking off a step/curb when they aren’t ready for it yet, so I place a lot of emphasis at increasing strength/balance/body awareness by practicing stairs/curbs and anything with edges
- So I encourage parents to practice stairs/curbs any time there is an opportunity when they are out and about with their kiddos
- Not only does practice help improve their awareness of edges, it also improves standing balance as they are forced to balance on 1 leg as they step up or down.
- It also improves leg strength depending on how high the step is, so I encourage practicing on a variety of heights.
PT Activity: Leg strength, balance, and ankle flexibility
Home activity: Walking up and down driveways/hills/ramps, uneven sidewalks
How it relates:
- walking uphill and downhill works different muscles, thus providing overall leg strengthening
- it also works on balance as the body has to react in different ways when walking up or downhill
- it also provides real life practice since we rarely only walk on nice, flat surfaces 😉
walking uphill
PT Activity: Leg and Hip Strengthening
Home Activity: Cleaning up!
How it relates:
- Squatting to pick up toys and put them away is a great way to strengthen hips and thigh muscles
- Squatting also works on ankle balance and flexibility, depending on how far a child squats and in what direction they are reaching
- Lifting objects from the floor also works on arm/shoulder and trunk strength
- Carrying an object depending on its size and if you need to hold it with 1 or 2 hands will also challenge a child’s balance
- Cleaning up is a great functional activity that a child can take ownership of
- And of course, all parents will be grateful once their kiddo starts helping to clean up 😉
child picking up toys
Those are examples of a few activities I give parents to do during a typical day. Are there other daily activities that other therapists like to incorporate into their patients’ days? I plan to add daily activities in a school setting next week!
Categories: Tips and Tricks Tuesdays
5 Ways to Use a Yoga Mat in Pediatric PT (other than for Yoga or Pilate’s) 
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Tips and Tricks Tuesdays- Bubbles! 
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