Paediatric physiotherapy is an area of healthcare specialised in working independently to carry out assessments and treatment plans for children aged 0-19. Paediatric physiotherapists have a critical role in feeding back their assessment findings to other members within the child’s multi-disciplinary team, such as doctors; speech and language therapists and occupational therapists, to help formulate and carry out the most effective treatment plan for the child.
With health and education going hand in hand, physiotherapists can help inform and educate your child’s school on your child’s condition and how they can best support them to achieve their full potential.
We offer a rage of interventions including, motor skills development, strength training, gait education, early intervention, core stability and stretches as well as general advice and recommendations.
It is what happens in the first months of your child’s life that build the foundations for their future.
Whether your child has received a diagnosis from a paediatrician, or you have concerns about them reaching their key milestones, we can help provide you with the tools to enable your child to reach their full potential. We offer one off assessments to review and reassure, or help guide you through the next stages of their therapy to ensure they receive the best intervention at the earliest opportunity.
We work closely with your child’s NHS physiotherapist to help provide additional physiotherapy sessions. Whether your child has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, a rare genetic condition, or simply presents with neurological symptoms, our physiotherapist can be on hand to help support you and your child through the blocks of therapy intervention.
We can work closely with your child’s educational setting to help them learn how best to support your child with their learning and health needs.
SDR is a procedure being offered by more and more NHS settings for some children with cerebral palsy. We are aware of how daunting this process can be for you and your child, therefore are on hand to be a familiar face to provide your child with the consistency they need both before and after their surgery. At Milestones Children’s Therapy we are of the mindset that the stronger and more familiar your child is with physiotherapy before their operation, the easier the transition is into the intensive post-operative stage.
You or your child’s educational setting may have concerns about the way your child coordinates their movements. For instance, they may frequently trip, knock things over, struggle with physical education and daily tasks such as getting dressed or using cutlery. We offer assessments to help highlight your child’s difficulties and tailor intervention to help them improve on their fine and gross motor skills, as well as provide advice and recommendations to make school and home life easier.
If your child has recently had surgery, or perhaps an injury which has led them to alter the way in which they walk, we can work with your child to help them find the most energy efficient and typical way of moving, whether that is with or without a walking aid.
We can also provide advice and support with specialist orthotics to help facilitate their walking and posture further.
We work with excellent representatives from highly renowned companies to carry out assessments for self-funded or charity funded specialist equipment. This can include walking aids and frames, trikes, standing frames and sleep systems.
With extensive manual handling training we would help provide you with a manual handling care plan of how to use these pieces of equipment, alongside any training needed for yourself, carers or school.
We are experienced at completing EHCP documentation and reports. We also have experience in supporting tribunals.
The occupational therapy service focuses on a range of developmental areas supporting children aged 0-18 to work on goals that are important to them. Understanding your child’s specific needs, skills and goals helps us to provide child centred therapy. This will include activities that are important to your child, such progressing their developmental positions to access play, building their independence in daily activities such as cutlery, dressing and personal care.
Comprehensive occupational therapy assessment will enable better understanding of the factors which may be impacting your child’s development, in order to tailor specialist intervention and recommendations to their needs.
Early intervention is particularly important in supporting your child to work towards their full potential with therapy support at the beginning of their development to guide them through their milestones, whether this is to progress their current positions of play or their play and problem solving skills to develop their cognition.
Children with a range of different needs, including a range of diagnosis may be working at their own pace with their play skills, fine motor skills, grasp development, gross motor skills and skills to get ready for starting School. An occupational therapy assessment, block of intervention and therapy programme can help to identify the types of activities which will help to continue to develop these skills and build on their foundational skills ready for starting school.
Some children may find it difficult to coordinate their movements, this may impact their balance, fine motor skills and hand eye coordination, which can in turn effect their independence with daily activities such coordinating knife & fork, dressing and scissors. Children may also find throwing and catching activities difficult. A range of non-standardised assessments will enable review of your child’s coordination in order to provide recommendations.
Occupational Therapy can assess from a motor perspective from initial grasp development to an established grasp in older children. Children may be delayed in their grasp for a range of reasons or may have an adapted grasp at a younger age which may be impacting their comfort and legibility. Older children may have difficulties with speed of handwriting and require recommendations to schools for managing their work. Occupational Therapy can provide assessment and recommendations if not available through your local NHS service.
Ongoing work within the NHS with children with a wide range of complex diagnoses including genetic conditions, syndromes, dystrophy and cerebral palsy has enabled comprehensive understanding of service provisions. OT can work alongside your NHS therapist to provide additional sessions or a block of therapy, this can be in early intervention or throughout your child’s development to provide consistency when working with a range of professionals.
Constraint Induced Movement Therapy is an intervention for children with unilateral cerebral palsy (impacting one side of the body). This is where a constraint is placed on non-affected arm to encourage awareness and use of affected arm within fun play activities. This can help to encourage spontaneous use of affected arm day to day in activities within supporting function. Interventions can include block of constraint therapy in addition to current NHS provision, followed by recommended bi-manual block of intervention to encourage using both hands together after consistent constraint therapy. For more information please contact us to discuss the bespoke options for you and your child.
If you require additional support with equipment based assessment being self funded or funded through charity, Occupational Therapy service is able to carry out assessment as required and discuss your child’s needs.
We are experienced at completing EHCP documentation and reports. We also have experience in supporting tribunals.
This can be tailored to the age range you currently support within your setting. This will include motor skills typical for age range, understanding the way in which children develop and refine these skills, children with coordination difficulties and ways to support their development within school setting. Case study examples and activities to support staff problem solving.
This will highlight the different senses and current theories associated with sensory processing. The training will discuss different factors to consider within School environment and how to make your School more sensory aware and supportive. Training will also help staff to better understand different sensory preferences by considering their own preferences within practical activities.
Case study scenario’s will also be discussed to help observational and problem solving skills (Please note this is not delivered by an SI trained practitioner).
If you would like to gain further understanding of a specific long-term condition, such as cerebral palsy and the way in which this may impact development, please contact us to discuss further. This training can include case study examples to develop understanding, discussion of specific interventions if relevant such as constraint and other secondary factors associated with diagnosis which may not be commonly known that impact learning, such as vision, differences in sensory processing and behavioural factors.
If you would like a specialist talk related to a specific area of interest please contact us to discuss. Therapists at Milestones Children's Therapy have frequently supported staff training and at locally hosted conferences on topics such as vision in cerebral palsy, sensory processing and Constraint Induced Movement Therapy.