Pediatric Physical Therapy. What we do.

Anyone reading this blog ever been to PT? At MMPT, we see kids big and small. Our slogan is "We see kids from 0-99!". My favorite patient, and the one I think I have the most experience and skill with is the baby with high muscle tone, who is stiff and totally confused on how to move. Let me tell you a little about what I do on a regular basis...

This is Miss Kelsey!

Her mom, Nora, actually reads the blog and gave me permission to post about her online. Kelsey comes to therapy three times a week.... from out of town!

This requires a great deal of sacrifice on the parts of her mom and dad, and on Fridays, her grandmother.

I have Kelsey all strapped down with neoprene, because I want to teach her about her trunk. I need her to realize that her upper body and lower body are connected. Most would think that comes naturally. But to a baby with a brain injury, it has to be learned.

Kelsey tends to avoid play with her feet altogether. This avoidance not only leads to a sensory neglect, but also an improper movement set which will prevent standing and walking.

She also has a strong avoidance of use of her right arm/ hand. In the photos first posted, you will see she is playing with vibrating toys in her right hand to facilitate more of a sensory awareness of this extremity and to encourage her to look at that hand, as she also has a strong preference to the left side entirely. She appears to be using her right arm well in these photos, but....

That's just because she has a FAB-U-LOUS PT! Ha!!

Truly, the positions you see her in appear much more effortless than they really are! It requires knowing exactly how to best position my hands to facilitate her abdominals to kick in to keep her head/chin tucked, her right arm forward for weightbearing, and her feet flat and in a good position for accepting weight... without hyperextension. (Nora... you KNOW this, don't you!?)

You have to give her enough assistance to create a normal position/ movement, but not so much that she becomes passive and doesn't work a little herself.

And on top of all that, she's a kid who'd get bored if we weren't engaging her in play of some sort!

And then we get moments like this...

For the most part a very special connection between therapist and child.

I feel very blessed to do what I do.

I feel very blessed to have met Kelsey.

Join me in praying for total use of Kelsey's right hand and that she will walk normally someday!

Mo