What do Paediatric Physiotherapists do?

Paediatric physiotherapy helps children reach their full potential by addressing any impairments or physical limitations that may be limiting your child. Whether they are recovering from an injury or a more limiting impairment, a paediatric physio is there to help aid you and your child, providing therapy, education and support.

A paediatric physiotherapist needs to develop a thorough understanding of your child’s condition/impairment/injury and look at how they are performing at the limited task, goal, sport or interactions. Gather information from parents, medical histories or from teachers or coaches and create a personalised plan that best helps your child.

They understand that a child is different from an adult and require a good understanding of the development of children and how therapies can be effective and which treatment techniques are most effective.

Our approach begins with a thorough assessment of your child’s individual needs. This involves:

• An Indepth Subjective Assessment: By listening to your child, support workers, coaches and parents, our paediatric physiotherapists can develop an understanding of the condition and impairment and tailor an assessment to best understand and measure the impairments of your child.
• Detailed Observation: Carefully observing your child’s movement patterns, walking, coordination and balance allowing us to identify any areas to be addressed.
• Comprehensive Evaluation: Conducting a thorough assessment of your child’s physical abilities and identifying any areas of concern. Identifying and impairments with their strength, flexibility, coordination, balance, muscle tone, muscle length and their joints range of motion
• Gathering Information: Gathering valuable information from parents, caregivers, and other healthcare professionals involved in your child’s care.

Based on the assessment, we develop a personalised treatment plan tailored to your child’s specific needs and goals. This may include:

• Therapeutic Exercises: Engaging and fun exercises designed to improve strength, flexibility, coordination, balance, and motor skills.
• Developmental Play: Incorporating therapy into fun play sessions that are both engaging for the child and beneficial.
• Manual Therapy: Gentle techniques such as massage, mobilisations, stretches and exercises to improve joint mobility, muscle function and allow correct movement patterns.
• Equipment Use: Utilising specialised equipment like therapy balls, balance mats, resistance bands, skill testers, and functional activities to help improve movements and impairments.

Education & Guidance: Educating parents and caregivers with exercises and advice to best help your child to continue to improve at home when they aren’t in therapy. This may involve techniques to help your child participate in the exercises, or advise on activities that at that point may be counterintuitive to their development.

Often children have support from external funding sources, one such source is the NDIS. Our therapists are able to summarise the assessments, include a diagnosis, projected outcomes and a plan for the physio to be most effective.

A paediatric physio will treat infants, children and adolescents up until the age of 19, when they can be transitioned into a general physiotherapist. While there is some overlap to when a child can see a regular physio or they need to see a paediatric physiotherapist, a paediatric physio focuses specifically on those younger individuals. Patients are often referred to us from GP’s or paediatricians for physitherapy treatment.

Paediatric physiotherapists treat a wide range of conditions from neurological conditions, to developmental delays, musculoskeletal issues, breathing/respiratory problems and other conditions.

Neurological Conditions:

• Cerebral Palsy: A group of disorders that affect muscle tone, movement, and coordination.  
• Spina Bifida: A birth defect that affects the development of the spinal cord.  
• Muscular Dystrophy: A group of genetic disorders that cause muscle weakness and wasting.  
• Spinal Muscular Atrophy: A genetic disorder that affects the motor neurons in the spinal cord.  
• Autism Spectrum Disorder: Can sometimes involve motor difficulties, sensory processing issues, and coordination challenges.  
• Traumatic Brain Injury: Injuries to the brain caused by accidents or other events.  

Developmental Delays:

• Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD): Difficulty with coordination and motor skills, often impacting handwriting, sports, and daily activities.  
• Delayed Motor Milestones: Children who are slower than expected to reach milestones like rolling, sitting, crawling, and walking.  

Musculoskeletal Conditions:

• Acute torticollis/apophyseal wry neck: A condition where a baby’s head is tilted to one side.  
• Hip Dysplasia: A condition where the hip joint doesn’t form correctly.  
• Scoliosis: A sideways curvature of the spine.  
• Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis: A type of arthritis that affects children.  
• Sprains & Strains: Children being more active are more likely to have knocks, trips/falls and sporting injuries.

Other Conditions:

• Post-surgical Rehabilitation: Children recovering from surgery, such as orthopedic procedures.  
• Chronic Pain: Children experiencing chronic pain conditions.  
• Respiratory Conditions: Conditions such as cystic fibrosis, asthma, bronchitis.

Paediatric physiotherapists are able to help children with a wide range of conditions or injuries. They can help children improve their motor skills, improve their independence, reduce pain & discomfort, and improve overall functions. They do this through using manual therapy techniques, therapeutic exercises including play therapies and education and guidance for continuation of treatment at home.

When should you take your child to see a paediatric physiotherapist?