Everyone is always saying “Exercise is good for you!”… yeah yeah we’ve all heard that before. We know that exercise makes our bodies healthier BUT did you know it can make your mind happier too?? This month is National Mental Health Month. We wanted to raise awareness this week by helping you understand WHY exercise can lift you and your child’s moods and help to reduce unwanted stress at the chemical level (aka within the brain)!

When we exercise, our brains release something called ENDORPHINS. Endorphins are released when our body feels physically exerted, which usually happens when we start to sweat, our heart rate goes up, and our cheeks turn pink! When our brains release endorphins, this helps to decrease our responsiveness to pain and also relieves stress within the brain. Also when we exercise, our brains release many mood-boosting chemicals. These are called DOPAMINE, NOREPINEPHRINE, and  SEROTONIN. These brian chemicals are all responsible for regulating our mood and promoting internal happiness on short and long term scales. One of the really cool things about Serotonin is that when we exercise regularly, the levels of serotonin in the brain have been shown to increase over a longer period of time. This promotes a greater sense of well-being, which can help your kiddos feel very secure.

Another great benefit of exercise is that it decreases potentially harmful stress chemicals, specifically adrenaline. With regular exercise, the levels of adrenaline in the brain become more balanced. If your kiddo exercises on a regular basis, this may help them feel less of this hormone which tends to make people very stressed out when over produced. 

We know hormones and brain chemicals can get very complicated very quickly BUT the bottom line is….Regular exercise can make your and your child’s brain happier and less stressed. No matter what that exercise might look like for you and your kids, as exercise comes in many forms for many types of bodies, it is important to move in a way that is healthy for your and your child’s body as much as is possible! 

Looking for ideas to jump start your family’s movement today? Watch this youtube video created by Coach Corey Martin, he will have the whole family ducking, dodging, and jumping over imaginary obstacles in no time!

Information retrieved from:

https://www.healthline.com/health/depression/exercise#Exercise-and-brain-chemistry
Feet are funny, they are those things at the end of your legs that hold up all of your weight all day long. They provide a stable base to balance on and the way they move when you put your weight on them helps you walk in a stable way. 

Feet come in many different variations and all feet are different! As physical therapists, when we take a first look at your child, we always make sure to look at their feet along with the rest of their body. Sometimes the way the feet are structured OR the way they move when your child stands on them can make balance VERY hard. What do we mean by this? Sometimes the feet have a little bit of extra motion to one side or the other. When this happens, the heel will often make a C shape, and that C can either point out or point in when you are looking at your child’s foot from the back. If the C’s point out, with the curve of the C in the middle, they may also have a “dropped arch” or a “flat arch”. If it looks like your child’s arch is close to the ground when you look at the inside of their foot, they may have arches that are more on the “flat” side.

Arches that are on the “flatter” end of the spectrum are not necessarily all bad, they absorb forces nicely when someone walks or runs. With enough foot strength, an arch that is on the flatter side can be very strong and can maintain that strength when challenged by difficult activities like walking, running, jumping, etc. When flat arches DO become a problem is when they start to affect a child’s balance and development of gross motor skills, like standing and walking. 

This is often the case when a foot with a flat arch lacks either the strength, dynamic stability, or both to stabilize the foot in a strong position during weight bearing. This can be seen when the child tries to stand, walk, or jump, where the arches remain in a “collapsed” position despite all the hard work the child is probably doing on top of their feet with their leg, butt, core, and trunk muscles to keep their balance. When this is the concern, we pediatric physical therapists often turn to orthotics and SMOs. When orthotics and SMOs are the right fit for your child, they allow the foot, and body on top of it, to practice dynamic stability. This helps develop a stronger foot while minimizing the effects of gravity that the foot is constantly losing the battle to! Think of it as getting the feet AND the whole body on top of the feet to work SMARTER and not HARDER for the time being! Once given a little extra help in the feet department, many kids take off and achieve milestones and new feats that were previously very challenging from them, because they are stabilizing their feet in a more efficient way.

For children who have a flat arch on one foot and not on the other, these children often have imbalances traveling from higher up in their bodies that are affecting their foot position. These children will benefit from physical therapy exercises, as orthotics won’t address the source of the problem.

If you were thinking about your child while you were reading this, come on in to KidPT for a free Discovery Visit! We can take a look at your child, how they are moving, and at their feet while they are moving! We can let you know what we are seeing and help steer you in the right direction!

Hi everyone! This week we are here to bring you insight on another way Physical Therapy can help children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Like we discussed last week, many people do not know how PT can help individuals within the ASD community. Well, we are here to tell you just how we can help (PART 2)! Not every individual within the ASD community has motor difficulties, but some individuals within the ASD community need a little bit of help to overcome different motor challenges that may be preventing them from flourishing as their best selves!

Some children with ASD love to move move move! While movement may just be something they love love love to do, sometimes they may be moving without stopping because they have trouble STOPPING their own body movement. Just like we discussed last week, this is often related to postural control as well. Postural control affects their balance and one’s ability to keep their body stable in one place for a given period of time. If your child has difficulty with postural control, it may cause them to stand up and then sit down, and then stand up again, in rapid succession. They may also be more inclined to run than walk OR when they are walking, their steps may be ALL over the hallway, like they are losing their balance. Like we talked about last week, these are both strategies kids may use to keep themselves from falling, because believe it or not, moving SLOWLY takes so much CONTROL of the body. Slowing down may be too much work for your child’s body so it is easier for them to move fast OR just to keep moving in general, because then they are less likely to fall. 

On the other hand, sometimes children with ASD have trouble starting new movements. This may happen when they are doing something like walking from standing still, reaching for an object from standing still, or transitioning from walking on a flat surface to walking up the stairs. It may seem like your child is refusing to move or refusing to do something hard, like climbing the stairs, when in reality they may be stalling because their brain is having trouble telling their body to GO! We in the PT world call this idea “movement initiation” and most of us take our own easy ability to initiate different movements for granted. Children who have trouble with movement initiation try very hard to start a movement, but sometimes it takes a bit OR they need some outside help to do it. This “outside help” is referring to things outside their brain, and some examples of this would be rainbow stripes on steps giving a visual cue to walk OR a song with a good beat, giving a sound cue to keep on moving! 

The goal of physical therapy in either of these realms is to generate either more postural control or easier movement initiation. How does PT do this, you ask? By making new neural connections in the brain and central nervous system which then inform the rest of the body. By making these changes in the brain and body, both processes of postural control and movement initiation become automatic processes. This way, your child does not have to think about it too hard and their body will do it automatically. This will let your child do other important tasks, like learning in school, eating a meal, or climbing the stairs, without their brain and body having to work so hard. By making these processes automatic, they can move with greater ease and freedom!

If any of these descriptions sound like your child, call us at KidPT today for a free Discovery Visit, where we can discuss if physical therapy is the right fit for your child and why!

Earth day is April 22nd this year, and we wanted to prepare all of the kiddos out there with ways to celebrate! We’ve said it before and we will say it here again, getting outside is great for so many things, including calming and attention (see our blog post about this HERE). It is also great for promoting movement of many varieties!

Here are some fun, Earth Day themed activities to get you and your family moving in the great outdoors:

  1. Hiking – Hit the trails with your family, there are so many great hiking trails in Somerset, Mercer, and Middlesex Counties, you will never be bored! Many of these trails feature wildlife and beautiful flowers as well as inclines and declines that are sure to get the blood pumping! Hiking can be used to teach your child about the “Leave No Trace” rules that apply to all hiking paths, where what is found in the forest, stays in the forest. This is a way to honor the nature found there and to leave it undisturbed for all hikers and wildlife alike.
  2. Gardening – Gardening exposes your child to many fun colors and textures while having them work and help by carrying plants to be potted, then squatting down low to help plant them! They get to feel dirt, feel the many different textures that come along with different plants, and maybe even find a worm or two! This can be turned into an educational experience about what animals and nutrients are needed to help a garden grow big and strong too!
  3. Plant a Tree – This is similar to gardening, but to plant a tree you need to use a big shovel. Have your child grab their mini-shovel and start digging! This can also be turned into an educational experience where you teach your child about how important trees are for our Ecosystem and for life, to teach them about why we celebrate Earth Day in the first place! When the little tree is all planted, they can look at your work and feel a sense of accomplishment that will last years and years as the tree grows!
  4. Canoe or Kayak – Both of these water related activities are very fun AND involve a lot of core and upper body strength! There is a lot of wonderful wildlife to be celebrated in lakes, rivers, and streams, and paddling on the water with your family is a wonderful way to experience the outdoors from a new perspective. You may see turtles and fish, and seeing these creatures living in their natural habitat will help your children learn about why bodies of water are important to protect as well.
  5. Go for a Bike Ride – Go to either a bike path or start from your house and bike somewhere that you want to explore with your family. Bike riding is a whole body activity and is easy for the whole family to do together. If you bike on Earth Day, you can teach your kids all about alternative forms of transportation and how riding your bike for transportation helps decrease the harmful emissions in the air, helping create a cleaner environment for everyone.

Happy Earth Day everyone! Go out there and explore the great outdoors! We hope this post helps generate some ideas for combining movement and activity with the outdoors for some teachable moments so that your kids can learn why we celebrate the green world all around us!

by Dr. Ali Clodfelter, PT

When it comes to the link between physical therapy and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), many people do not know how PT can help individuals within the ASD community. Well, we are here to tell you just how we can help! Not every individual within the ASD community has motor difficulties, but some individuals within the ASD community need a little bit of help to overcome different motor challenges that may be preventing them from flourishing as their best selves!

What is Hypotonia (Low Muscle Tone)?

Low muscle tone is often described as having ‘loose’ or ‘floppy’ muscles. This is usually because the muscles are not as firm or tight as expected for the stage of development the child is at currently. Kids who experience low muscle tone may have delayed motor skills, difficulty with motor coordination and weakness in their muscles . Low tone is a term used to describe the baseline stiffness of the muscles. High tone would describe muscles that are in a tighter resting state and low tone describes muscles that are in a more relaxed resting state. For more detail, visit the Kid PT Low Tone page.https://kidpt.com/low-tone/

Is there a link between Autism and low muscle tone?

Sometimes individuals within the ASD community also have a diagnosis of Low Muscle Tone, usually shortened to Low Tone. Kiddos with low tone have a harder time activating their muscles as quickly and easily as those without low tone. It can make dealing with gravity on an everyday basis very challenging. When a child is frequently losing the battle with gravity, there are some clues to look for like:

  • they might sit with a very forward, rounded spine,
  • they may have difficulty reaching for objects while sitting and standing
  • they have trouble getting onto and off of the floor or into and out of a chair
  • they may have difficulty keeping their balance when challenged
  • they may even have trouble walking or running without tripping or falling

Is Physical Therapy Useful for Autism Spectrum Disorders?

Kids with low tone can really benefit from physical therapy because it helps improve their ability to make their muscles ready for challenging tasks. This means, when they go to try a task where gravity previously won the battle, they know how to activate their muscles beforehand (eventually without even thinking about it), and can perform the task with greater ease and safety. 

Children with Low Tone also have difficulty with postural control. Postural control affects their balance. If your child has difficulty with postural control, it may cause them to have difficulty keeping their balance when sitting in a chair, walking on unstable surfaces or narrow surfaces, and it may make it very hard for them to stand still. Often when a child has difficulty with postural control that affects their balance in standing, they will keep moving or keep taking steps forward just to keep from falling! That is a lot of work that they are doing every day just to keep their balance!

With improvements in muscle readiness and postural control, kids with Autism gain the stability they need to do everyday tasks with greater ease. With greater ease of movement, kids are able to grow and learn to do motor tasks they never thought possible. It is this growth we love to see and support, and it is why we do what we do!

How Kid PT Connects the Dots

Our approach is to respect neurodiversity while supporting the needs of autistic children and teens from a sensory and motor perspective.

Our pediatric physical therapists work with autistic children and teens first seeking CONNECTIONS, building relationships with children, and then building from there. You can read about Autism and our founder, Dr. Joni Redlich’s B”Turn Stumbling Blocks into Building Blocks” here https://kidpt.com/autism/

If any of these descriptions sound like your child, call us at Kid PT today for a free Discovery Visit, where we can discuss if physical therapy is the right fit for your child and why!

This month is Autism Acceptance Month (formerly known as Autism Awareness Month). The purpose of the month, which was originally geared toward raising awareness and sharing resources to raise awareness for the Autism Community, is now aimed at both raising awareness and fostering a culture of acceptance. What does this mean exactly? The name change to Autism Acceptance Month urges for a change in how the community at large embraces individuals with Autism as well as their families. A large source of stress for individuals with Autism and their families is a lack of community support, this includes difficulty finding support within the education system, providing accessible housing, providing affordable healthcare, and helpful, comprehensive long term services. 

That said, we wanted to highlight one resource we found that was designed to help individuals within the community and to help educate the community as a whole. This resource is a children’s book, created by an individual who has Autism, that seeks to describe and normalize various sensory needs, mobility needs, and even nutrition needs for children with disabilities, and is not solely limited to ASD. This resource does so in a way that does not teach children who are neurodivergent or who have a disability to feel like their difference is their fault OR that it is something that needs to be hidden in order for them to fit into everyday life. This children’s story highlights that children all have differences from each other, that the needs of many children can be met within the school setting, and that this is a great thing! It seeks for foster “Neuroinclusion” rather than to create an environment of othering and exclusion. This story is called “A Room For Us All: A Neuroinclusive Story”.

Below is the link to the article written on this topic which has a PDF of the story we mentioned at the bottom of the article!

Other references resourced here:

by Alison Clodfelter, PT, DPT

April is finally here, and you know what that means, APRIL SHOWERS! With April showers comes so many PUDDLES! We know how much your kiddos probably love to jump in puddles, and while it may get their clothes a little wet, it certainly is fun! Jumping is also great for coordinating the muscles of your tummy and back with your arms and legs because all these different muscle groups need to fire at just the right times. This needs to happen in a certain sequence for each jump to occur, which means it is helpful to practice different kinds of jumps to learn all kinds of coordination patterns!

You and your kiddo may want to pull out your rain boots for these fun puddle jumps to keep your feet dry:

1. Jumping AROUND the puddles: Jumping two feet apart then two feet together: Start with both feet together (in front of your puddle), then jump forward and move both feet apart at the same time (two feet outside of the puddle). Then jump with two feet back together to make it to the other side of your puddle!

2. One foot puddle jump: Start with two feet in front of your puddle, then hop onto one foot RIGHT INTO THE PUDDLE (SPLASH)! Now jump back onto two feet! Turn around and try jumping into the puddle on your other foot!

3. One foot OVER the puddles: Start on the side of your puddle on one foot, quickly bend the knee your standing on and jump sideways OVER the puddle to land on your other foot. Try not to land in the puddle! Keep repeating this and see how many sideways jumps you can do without getting your feet wet!

4. Backwards puddle jumps: Jumping backward gives a whole new moving view of the world to your kiddo while they are trying to coordinate their jumping, challenging their coordination with a new visual flow, making their brain work in a new way to move!

5. Puddle LEAPS: Have your child RUN up to the puddles, lift one foot off the ground, and push off the leg that is still on the ground to do one big LEAP over the puddle. Again, try not to land in the puddle, and see how many you can do without making a splash!

6. Puddle Half Turns: We had to end with one right in the puddle! Start with your rain boots standing in the puddle. Jump UP and turn your whole body 180 degrees to do one half turn. This one is great for coordinating the rotational muscles of your tummy with your jump.

These fun jumps can of course be performed without puddles too if you don’t want to get messy! Happy puddle jumping!

This week, we wanted to discuss how PT may be able to help your infant with feeding difficulties. Recently we have been seeing and treating many infants with difficulties feeding, for example trouble latching, mouth tightness, and trouble getting enough milk! When you bring your new baby home from the hospital, there are so many things to learn and so many things your growing family is experiencing together, whether you are an experienced parent or new parent. If your little one seems to be having trouble feeding and becomes very fussy at meal times, you may start feeling very overwhelmed and exasperated, because all you want them to do is eat to grow big and strong!

A lot of times, babies who are experiencing feeding difficulties also have a lip and/or tongue tie, requiring releases. They also may seem uncomfortable in their bodies and seem fussy a lot of the time. It is often blamed on gas or colic, but there is often more to it. Many new parents are referred to a lactation specialist and/or speech therapist to help with their baby’s feeding difficulties and lip and tongue tie concerns. Both lactation specialists and speech therapists are amazing professionals to have on your team during this fussy, troublesome time. 

What you might not know is that a Pediatric Physical Therapist may be helpful as well, specifically a pediatric physical therapist trained in a special technique called Total Motion Release (aka TMR). This gentle technique helps PTs to look at the whole body of a child, no matter how small, to see if there are any asymmetries in their posture. These asymmetries in their posture are often left over from the infant’s specific positioning in utero.  They make it uncomfortable for your baby to be held in certain positions, which may affect them during feeding or otherwise. They can also contribute to tightness in your baby’s neck, jaw, and inside their mouth, which may affect their ability to feed, as you may be experiencing at home! Funny thing is, the muscles and other soft tissues of the body, specifically in the hips and the trunk, are MUCH BIGGER than the little muscles of the neck, jaw, tongue, and mouth. Because these soft tissues are bigger, they may be adding to the tightness your baby is already experiencing in their mouth, which may be increasing their difficulties with feeding.

If you are thinking this sounds like your little one, breathe a sigh of relief, because these asymmetries are easily worked out with simple and easy positioning techniques, especially if your baby is very little. Here at KidPT, we look at the whole body of your little one and use TMR to do this. Through our TMR lens, we look to see if your baby has any of these soft tissue asymmetries in his or her body. We can talk with your lactation specialist or speech therapist to see what their current concerns are, and as a team we can progress your baby toward ease of feeding, and an overall increase in comfort in their bodies, together! Parents often find that not only does the baby feed better, but they become calmer, happier and sleep better! If you are currently experiencing feeding difficulties with your newborn, and want an experienced pair of hands to see if asymmetries in your baby’s body may be contributing to this, come on in to KidPT for a free Discovery Visit with one of our Physical Therapists! We would love to help you and your little one with our no muss, no fuss approach! 

…It might be more than behavior and attention

By: Dr. Ali

Do you feel like your child never stops moving? Like they are here, there and everywhere, running in between destinations and fidgeting in their chair while eating a meal? Even if you have asked them to take a pause they seem to not listen, or be physically unable to follow the instructions you are giving to slow down, even if they are traditionally a very good listener? Being in constant motion can be related to certain diagnoses, like ADHD. ADHD often presents with additional signs and symptoms, like forgetfulness, difficulty staying on task, trouble listening while another is talking, excessive talking, unsafe and impulsive behavior, and/or trouble with turn taking. Regardless of whether your child has a diagnosis of ADHD or not, there may be another factor contributing to their need for constant motion.

That “thing” is something we PT’s call postural control. Postural control defined as the act of maintaining, achieving, or restoring a state of balance during any posture or activity (1). When someone has a very “fine tuned” postural system, their body, vestibular system (little balance center in the ears), and eyes are telling their brain where they are in space and what position their body has to hold. Then their brain sends signals to the muscles to hold that specific position. In order for all of this to work, the eyes, the vestibular system, and the body have to send accurate signals, the brain has to correctly process this information, and the body must be able to coordinate muscles on all sides to hold the position steady. Phew, even thinking about this long process can make someone tired! 

When there is misinformation, trouble processing the information, or trouble coordinating the body in response to the brain’s signals, it will show in the body. When this happens, the child’s body may sway back and forth while they are trying to sit still in a chair, they may need to continuously move their feet instead of standing still, or they may just keep changing position when the one they are currently in becomes too hard to hold. When children are in constant motion, it often shows us PT’s that they are stuck constantly “restoring” their state of balance, as opposed to “maintaining” as the definition says above. Their body feels like it is always at risk of falling, so they move to catch themselves and prevent this. It may not look like that is what is happening when they are step, step, stepping, but if they are stuck constantly restoring their balance with decreased postural control, this is what their body is telling them is happening. 

When we see kids who show us this constant need for motion, we help them improve their postural control so that they can achieve and maintain steady postures. This is important for so many reasons other than just giving them greater stability. Sometimes when postural control improves, a child has an easier time paying attention to tasks and school lessons, because part of their brain isn’t being used to keep them on balance. All of that brain energy that was being used to signal movement that would prevent them from falling can be allotted to other things, because their balance system is operating on autopilot!

If you see your child having difficulty staying still and want to get another opinion, come in to KidPT for a free discovery visit, and a PT can answer any questions you may have about this topic!

References: 

  1. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10945424/#:~:text=Postural%20control%20is%20defined%20as,change%2Din%2Dsupport%20response.

By: Dr. Ali

This week is St. Patrick’s Day and with all of the green, Leprechaun fun, we wanted to add some fun moves to your family’s festivities! If you need a visual version of these exercises, click above to view the exercises in video form!!

  1. Leprechaun’s Jig: Jump together on two feet, then jump onto one, to two, then to one, and keep repeating this over and over again until you have done 10 one footed jumps total! Look, you’re doing a jig!
  2. Making the Rainbow: Go on your belly to start. Place your hands on the ground and your feet on the ground. Then push your tooshie up into the air and hold
  3. Creeping over the rainbow: Tip toe on a line with a sneaky expression, so you don’t “tip” the Leprechaun off that you are coming. SHHHHH its a surprise, you have to sneak up on him if you want his gold!
  4. Jumping in the Pot of Gold: Jump into your imaginary pot of gold but bringing one knee up close to your chest then jumping onto the leg that is up while bringing your opposite knee close to your chest. 
  5. Give gold coins to your friends: Squat low (because you are still up on the imaginary rainbow) and pass your friends coins by reaching down low. Pass the coins to 10 friends!

We hope you have fun getting JIGGY with it! We know you will all be the best rainbows, pot o’ gold jumpers, jig dancers, and gold coin sharers out there! Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone!