Scoliosis

  Scoliosis is a abnormal curve of the spine that can occur for various reasons.  In the case of Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis, the medical community still doesn’t understand why the spine of a typically developing child changes from growing straight to an “S” curve.  The most common initial treatment is “wait and see.”  If the curve advances, bracing is often recommended in order to prevent the curves from worsening during growth.  Surgery is a last resort option, but is often recommended when curves reach a certain point.

In the past, exercise based programs were not effective, but research has emerged that supports exercise based intervention as an option to alter the course of scoliosis.

At Kid PT we prefer to be proactive from than “wait and see.”.  If we address the spine’s imbalances before it worsens, we can more easily improve the spine’s alignment.

To learn more, give us a call at 908-543-4390.  We are happy to provide a 30 minute discovery session to demonstrate how you can take action and improve scoliosis before it requires bracing or surgery.

 

 

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Sensory Processing Disorders- Getting to the Core of It

Sensory processing, emotional regulation and sensory regulation challenges have become so common.  One search on the internet and you’ll get a myriad of ideas to help your child calm with deep pressure or the movement they crave.

Did you know that you can impact a child’s sensory experience by simply changing their posture?

Sometimes small changes can make the largest impact.  Especially ones that you can reproduce throughout the day, like during mealtime.  Changing a child’s posture can change how they breath.  A deeper breath can activate a child’s calming system.  Plus, the body loves how it feels and will naturally repeat it over and over.

Many children with these challenges overuse postures that make it difficult to activate their core, coordinate their eyes together and can lead to toe-walking.  These children often become stuck in a fight-or-flight pattern.  Many will present with primitive reflexes still present because more mature movement patterns haven’t had the opportunity to develop.

Other children with these challenges will overuse other patterns and may be told to “sit up tall” all day.  These children often haven’t developed the core control needed to sit up while using their eyes, ears and minds all day long.  It can be exhausting for them!  These children are often w-sitters as well.

Lastly, some children have a combination of these two common postures.  The child will overuse one posture in standing and another posture in sitting, letting gravity win in each position.

By supporting a child in a neutral posture, often with someone as simple as a towel roll or yoga wedge, we can build a child’s basic foundations, from the core out.  Combine neutral posture with the breath and later with movement and a child’s sensory processing, emotional regulation and sensory regulation can improve.

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Balance Awareness Week 2017

September 18-24 is Balance Awareness Week!

Balance is something that most people take for granted. It is our constant companion working in the background as we go through our day.  We don’t think about it until something goes wrong!!!   Read more

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Toys to Keep Kids Moving All Year Round

Many parents ask me for suggestions this time of year for gifts that will be fun and also promote a child’s gross motor development and fitness.   Here are some great ideas to share with family and friends! Read more

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Introducing the Kid PT Team!

Hello! We’re really excited to announce that KidPT is expanding!!! I’m thrilled to introduce you to our two new Therapists, Kate Mills CCC-SLP and Tara Wirth OTR/L, who have joined our team so we can offer you a range of services in one place! KidPT now offers Speech Therapy and Occupational Therapy along with our Physical Therapy services.  KidPT highly values looking at the whole child and bringing a team together will even better help children meet their full potential! Read more

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It’s Balance Awareness Week!

 

balanceThis week is Balance Awareness Week! Balance can be affected by many different sensory and motor systems and they all need to work together and team up for us to keep our balance during life’s everyday challenges.

Here’s an introduction to our Sense of Balance.

Our vestibular system describes our balance system house in our inner ears. It becomes active before we our born, is tested out and activated by children as they roll and spin throughout childhood, and becomes more sensitive (no more spinning amusement rides!) as we age.

Here’s some more information about when things go wrong in this system in children.

Our somatosensory system is another big member of the balance team. This system includes touch (think toes in the sand) and also proprioceptive information, which travels from muscles and joints to the brain to tell us where we are in space. Here’s a vestibular patient and OT’s blog post talking about proprioception Here’s another great post on proprioception, which (yay!) includes the importance of alignment in core activation (more important than strength!).

Our third important sensory system of the balance team is vision. Children rely on vision as #1 of the sensory team for balance. As children get older, they must learn to integrate the three systems.

During a physical therapy evaluation, the different sensory and motor systems and how they are working together are assessed. Common problem areas are:
-Postural asymmetries and poor alignment affecting PROPRIOCEPTION
-Decreased VESTIBULAR activation
-Decreased functional VISION skills
-Decreased ability to combine postural control with these sensory systems to work automatically without effort

Call us to arrange a screening and learn how to improve your child’s balance skills within minutes!

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My Child Keeps Falling Out of His Chair!

A quick and dirty test to rule out a commonly missed cause and how to fix it.

Many parents and teachers complain of children with developmental, learning, and coordination challenges falling out of their chairs. They will see this during class instruction and during homework time. Read more

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A Focus on Strength or Strengths?

Physical therapists are trained to identify all of the things that are atypical, limited, restricted, weak, ineffective and abnormal.  Once all of these problems are identified we develop a plan to knock down all of the things that are wrong.  Our goal? To help someone accomplish something new or to regain a lost skill. Read more

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Autism and School Safety

With the death of Avonte, a young boy with autism gone missing last week for a while in Queens and a local 3 year-old with autism locally who was left on a school bus for 6 hours, it made me reconsider the safety of the students at the schools I have worked. The schools put many safeguards in place, but how do we a related service providers piggyback on those safeguards? Read more

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