Physical Therapy: Warning Signs and What Parents Can Do from KidsCare Therapy

It is with such sadness that I introduce our final post in our KidsCare Therapy series. I've had such a fun time working with KidsCare to bring you valuable information about in-home Speech, Occupational, and Physical Therapy, what to look for as warning signs with your children, and how to help your children along developmental milestones. All good things must come to an end, I suppose, but I've let KidsCare know that they are welcome back 'round these parts anytime :)

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KidsCare Therapy has bittersweet feelings about being back this week for the final post of our series with Avant Garde Parenting for the second half of information on physical therapy. We are so happy that after today we will have provided you with the last bit of information to help enable you to keep the kids in your life developing, but we have enjoyed sharing our passion so much that it is sad to see it end!

In our last post we covered the general overview of what a pediatric physical therapist scope of treatment includes. So what do you think we are going to discuss for this week?  That’s right – we are going to tell you all about the specific diagnosis our physical therapist see in children, as well as potential warning signs and some things you can do with your children to ensure they continue to develop on target!

Physical therapists most often see children with developmental delays. While they also treat many patients with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Down syndrome and Neurological Impairments, as with speech and occupational therapy they are really treating a list of common symptoms in these diagnosis, which we discussed in our last post. In order to know if your child could potentially need physical therapy services, we have provided a list below of potential warning signs in a child.

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An Inside Look at Physical Therapy from the Folks at KidsCare Therapy

KidsCare Therapy is back, for our third and final month to tell you about another great therapy service for children. Thus far we’ve covered occupational and speech therapy, and during the month of June we are going to tell you all about the third discipline we treat –physical therapy. As with the other disciplines, we will start out this month by giving you a general overview of a pediatric physical therapist’s scope of treatment in this post, and then follow it up in a couple of weeks with specific diagnosis, potential warning signs and some treatments. After this month we hope that you will all be well versed as to how to identify a child that may be in need of speech, occupational or physical therapy, as well as how you can help to ensure you keep a child in your life healthy, and on target!

By definition physical therapy is a branch of rehabilitation that uses specifically designed exercises to help patients regain or improve their physical abilities.  Physical therapists work with many types of patients from infants all the way through adulthood to assist with that which limits a patients ability to move and perform functional activities as well as they would like in their daily lives. This differs from occupational therapy (which we learned about in April) because physical therapy deals more with large body movements versus the fine use of the hands. Physical therapy is helping mobility and strength, while occupational therapy assists more with the fine motor skills involved with performing each task. While both of these play into one main goal, which is to help ensure a child develops into a fully functioning adult, with all of their motor skills intact– each of these disciplines have different ways of obtaining this goal. A physical therapist would describe “success” as being able to facilitate improvement of functional skills and independence, but also strength, coordination and balance for increased mobility.

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Speech and Your Child - Tips from KidsCare Therapy

Welcome to summer time in North Texas (and everywhere!) from all of us here at KidsCare Therapy! We are excited to be back this week to further honor Better Hearing and Speech month. In our last post you learned all about speech therapy, including what they do and the symptoms they treat. This week we will focus on some of the potential warning signs for delay, as well as offer up some tips that can help to ensure a child in your life continues to develop their speech skills on target. 

While many of the patients that a speech therapist treats will have diagnosis such as ADD/ADHD, autism, and developmental delays – generally speaking they will be treating a list of symptoms that happen to coincide with these diagnoses, not the diagnoses themselves. As you learned in our last post these symptoms can range from speech or language delays to articulation or dysphagia.

So by now you may be asking, “How can I tell if a child in my life needs speech therapy services?” For receptive language problems (problems pertaining to how a patient processes and understands communication) it is important to see if the child can follow directions that are given, and to make sure they are comprehending questions they are asked. If they look or seem confused when you speak to them it could be a sign that they are not processing the communication.

If a child is not using words, or is unable to communicate their needs, then they most likely have an expressive language delay (which pertains to what they are able to say or how they use language to communicate). While the level of communication will differ with age, look to see if the child is able to express their needs. Even a baby will squeal or cry to get a desired response. Please see our developmental delay chart for specific milestones that a child should be achieving at each age.

So, what are some things you can do to keep a child on par with developmental milestones related to their speech? Well, constantly communicating with the child is perhaps the greatest contribution to their thriving. Talk through each activity you do, and ensure the child tries to communicate in order to request their needs.  Reading to a child, or having them read, is also another great way to continue development. When reading, it is helpful to ask the child questions as you turn each page to ensure there is comprehension (or that the receptive language is being developed). Using pictures is also a great way to have kids associate and learn words.

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An Inside Look at Speech Therapy from the Folks at KidsCare Therapy

In May, KidsCare Therapy continues to celebrate our amazing therapists by partnering with Avant Garde Parenting for Better Hearing and Speech Month! Over the coming weeks, we’ll be featuring—you guessed it—speech therapy services. You’ll learn about a speech therapist’s scope of treatment and the various ways they help children overcome a wide range of developmental delays. By the end of the month, we hope you are equipped with the tools to identify a child that could benefit from speech therapy services.

Just as with occupational therapy, speech therapy’s scope of treatment is very broad and contains some surprises. As their title suggests, speech therapists treat speech and language disorders. What might surprise you is that speech therapists also treat feeding and swallowing disorders, called “dysphagia”. This is the same for both adult and pediatric patients, although the focus of treatment will likely vary. Speech therapy in adults is typically more rehabilitation-based, where as pediatric patients are typically learning skills for the first time.

As in occupational therapy, the goal is to help children develop into fully-functioning independent adults by developing necessary life skills—in this case, communication and feeding skills. By giving a child effective communication skills, he or she is able to express their needs and wants, especially those that are medical. Feeding skills are vital in allowing a child to gain nutrition for appropriate weight gain and growth.

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Occupational Therapy: Proactive Parenting Tips and An Autism Success Story!

A hot and humid “Howdy!” from KidsCare Therapy in Dallas/Fort Worth, where the temperatures are getting higher and higher! In our last post you learned all about pediatric occupational therapy—why and how an occupational therapist helps children. This week, we are going to review some of the things an occupational therapist regularly sees when treating patients.  We will also let you know about some of the most important developmental milestones your child should be reaching and at what age these milestones occur. You’ll also learn a few tips from our in-house OT clinical manager that you can use to ensure that your child continues to develop and thrive on target!  And, of course, we’ll have another inspiring success story where you can see the real-life benefits of home health services.

As you know, an occupational therapist treats a wide array of conditions—everything from sensory processing disorder to autism. As a review, below are some of the more common conditions treated by an OT:

• Developmental delays
• Cerebral Palsy and other neurologic disorders
• Autism and other spectrum disorders
• Down Syndrome and other genetic disorders
• ADD/ADHD and learning disabilities

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Parent of the Week: Karen

Today we honor Karen, an amazing mother of 3 who shares her story of finding out that one of her daughters had a rare muscle disorder- what that meant for her, her daughter, and the rest of her family. Read on in admiration at her strength, positivity, and confidence in her daughter. It will truly warm your heart. 


REMEMBER: If you’d like to be a Parent of the Week, or if you’d like to nominate someone, simply email me at deluna.jamie@gmail.com. It’s that easy!

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Enabling Faith

How truly exciting it was to be asked to be Parent of the Week. Being a mom of three, with one being special needs, I welcome any opportunity to share my story in hope of helping other families and raising awareness.

My name is Karen. My amazing husband and I live in a suburb of Dallas, Texas, and we have three wonderful angels for children. They range in age from 14 to 10 years.

My life drastically changed with the birth of my youngest daughter.  Having no warning at all, she was born with a rare muscle disorder called Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita (AMC).  Unfortunately, she was born with a severe form of it involving fused ribs, fused spine, inability to swallow, and brittle bones.  The prognosis was extremely bleak, with the physicians giving her six months to live, tops.  Being a Christian woman, and from a wonderful supportive family, I told the doctor ‘thank you for your “prediction”, but I’ll take it from here’.  I refused to accept his prediction.  We went for five months before I was able to get her an appointment at the amazing Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas. There, the orthopedist diagnosed her with AMC and filled us in on what the disorder was.  I immediately began researching and looking for those familiar with AMC and how to treat it in the best way possible to give her quality of life. It was a long challenging road due to the rarity of the disorder.  However, while doing research one night while sitting up with my daughter, I ran across a wonderful website.  Low and behold, an actual support group for AMC.  I sat and cried and cried.  What a relief to finally find others that have experienced all the trials and tribulations I have.  From that day forward I have benefited from knowing other families from around the world, sharing ideas, contacts, joys and yes, even sorrows.  The support group has become my extended family by all means. 

Little did I know that my life would soon require me to do juggling acts.  Forty hour work weeks, soccer practices, football practices, parent conferences and the never ending scheduling of seven different physicians, four different therapies and 120 hours a week of nursing schedules, sleep was hard to come by.  Somehow though things fell into place, and my children got what they needed. 

My oldest two children have had huge adjustments in their lives. From being the babies and having a lot of mom’s attention, to having to “wait their turn” to get attention from mom.  The never-ending revolving door of nurses in our home day and night for years had their toll on everyone.  However, my children are extremely strong and have learned so much from their little sister, and likewise I’ve learned from my children.  The experience has given everyone a whole new view on life; more compassion, care, patience, and a better understanding of what life is like for a disabled child and to be his/her family.

Throughout the years, I have had low times where I asked why God would put us through this? Why he would put my daughter through this? I feel that angels are sent to us in disguise.  Maybe to give us a wakeup call, saying ‘hey, you are not on the right path, there is much more for you to do and see’. I truly believe I was sent an angel to teach me, and I am extremely blessed to be one of the chosen ones.

For more information on Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita: 

AMC Support Group: www.amcsupport.org

Facebook group as Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita Support, Inc.

My blog: www.enablingfaith.wordpress.com

AMC Documentary in progress: http://www.amcdocumentary.org/

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Karen and past Parents of the Week, feel free to grab the award badge:

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Happy National Occupational Therapy Month!

April is National Occupational Therapy Month! Here at KidsCare Therapy, we can’t think of a better way to celebrate than to partner with Avant Garde Parenting to educate parents all over the country about this incredible service we’ve been offering children in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Perhaps you’ll even discover how occupational therapy can help a child you know succeed in everyday life!

When you think of occupational therapy, what comes to mind? What do you think an occupational therapist does? (Hint: they do not help people choose a career!) Of the three disciplines KidsCare Therapy offers (speech, physical and occupational therapy), there seems to be the least familiarity with the role of occupational therapy, especially in pediatric patients.

In its most basic form, occupational therapy helps people fully develop the tasks that occupy their time. What do you spend most of your day doing? Most of you would say work occupies a majority of your time, whether that is in a professional environment or in the home. An occupational therapist assists in the development of skills that are crucial to success in this area. In pediatric occupational therapy, the goal is to help children develop into fully-functioning independent adults by developing necessary life skills. And what better way to accomplish this than through what occupies most children’s time—play! Playing is essentially the job of a child, after all. By creating games and activities that incorporate the development fine motor skills—grasping and pointing, just to name a few—occupational therapists are laying the groundwork for mastery of important tasks such as handwriting, using utensils to eat, and bathing.  

And because our daily interactions are not just limited to objects, occupational therapists also focus on how children relate to other individuals. Activities can be centered around learning to take turns and increasing comfort while engaging in social exchanges with another person. They will also address attention deficits and behavioral concerns. Therapy helps prolong attention to, and increase participation in, everyday tasks.

The ability to thrive requires problem-solving skills as well. Occupational therapy is instrumental in helping children not only recognize a problem, but also fully comprehend the issue and develop a strategy to overcome it. Occupational therapists also address trunk and upper extremity weakness, or a lack of strength in the shoulders, arms, wrists, hands, and torso. Without first developing the muscles in these parts of the body, everyday tasks are nearly impossible.

The very nature of occupational therapy makes the home an ideal setting in which to administer it—therapists are able to incorporate objects from the child’s own home into treatment. This means that a child is able to learn how to correctly use their own toys. In addition, they are learning to eat at their own table, with their own utensils, and they are potty trained in their own bathroom.

As you’ll learn in the following success story, many children seen by occupational therapists suffer from sensory-processing disorders. Home health has proved to be extremely successful for these patients, and one of our occupational therapists will explain how she worked in the child’s natural environment to overcome many of the problems he was facing.

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Three-year old Chris was referred to occupational therapy by his speech therapist due to concerns with his poor behavior, decreased attention, and possible sensory processing difficulties.  When he began OT services, he frequently bounced between activities, was overly focused on certain play items (Thomas the Train, Cars), used only a few intelligible words, was sensitive to touch (disliked brushing teeth/hair and haircuts; didn’t like messy hands), and was sensitive to sounds (held hands over his ears often).  He was a picky eater, delayed in potty training, behind on fine motor skills (grasp, drawing, snipping, & stringing beads), frequently threw tantrums, and preferred to play alone. 

OT treatment involved structured play which incorporated his special interests to increase his focus and motivation to try new things, alternating between sit-down and movement activities to increase his attention, play with textured or messy materials, and the use of songs involving touch (“Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes”) to decrease touch sensitivity. Also utilized were oral-motor/mouth activities (horns, whistles, bubbles, food play) to decrease sensitivity for brushing teeth and eating different foods, Therapeutic Listening ® (the use of modulated music on headphones) to decrease sound sensitivity and increase language and attention skills, practice of fine motor and self-care skills, behavior modification strategies (structure, choices, rewards, limits), and modeling of proper social interaction skills.  With skilled OT intervention, home activities, caregiver education, and coordination with his treating Speech Therapist, Chris was discharged from both OT and ST services after one year.  He is now able to participate in all age-appropriate tasks, has normal language skills, has fewer behavioral outbursts, attends well, and can play appropriately with his family and peers and with increased interest.

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Be sure to check back for our next posting, where we’ll talk about some of the more common conditions seen by occupational therapists, developmental red flags of which you should be aware, and some tips from our in-office occupational therapist to assist your child in proper development. In addition, we’ll be sharing another success story where you’ll learn about how OT services helped a child overcome some of the problems that come along with Autism. You won’t want to miss it!

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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Series on In-Home Therapy and Special Needs

One of the questions I'm asked most often is about special needs. What are the red flags, what are good resources, what are treatment options? The quick answer is: special needs could be (and often is) an entire blog or website on its own! Truly, though, special needs is a topic that Avant Garde Parenting should cover, so guess what? I’m bringing in the experts! 

I couldn’t be more excited to announce a new collaboration with KidsCare Therapy. KidsCare are the home health experts in Dallas/Fort Worth- they provide in-home speech, physical, and occupational therapy to children with all sorts of needs. They’ve so kindly agreed to partner with Avant Garde Parenting to bring you top notch information regarding:

• Common and not-so-common conditions
• Benefits of in-home therapy
• State of the art treatment options
• Developmental milestones for young children
• Common warning signs to be aware of
• Success stories from real parents and children with special needs

So, in addition to the great posts about parenting and child development that you’re used to on Avant Garde Parenting, over the next three months you’ll also get to read about how three types of therapy- occupational, speech, and physical- enrich the lives of children every day. 

Get excited Avant Garde Parenting readers- and get ready for some great information!

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Parent of the Week: Allie

I’m so pleased to introduce Allie to you this week. She’s mom to two amazing little ones that you will just love reading about. Oh, and she blogs over at Little Baby Fields- enjoy!

As always, if you'd like to be a Parent of the Week or would like to nominate someone, email me at deluna.jamie@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you!

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Tell me a little about you- Who are you? What do you do? Do you dance in the car?

My name is Allie and I've been a stay at home mom since the birth of our first child in 2007. I live in beautiful east Tennessee with my husband John, our three year old daughter Sarah Hazel, 21 month old son Cameron, two cats and a giant Golden Retriever that likes to sleep on the couch. My kids keep me on my toes but when I can get a break I love to sew or read a good book. I absolutely love babies so every Sunday morning I volunteer in our church nursery. You’d think having two small children of my own would steer me away from rocking newborns but I am at peace when I have a little one in my arms. And we all dance AND sing in the car and I make no apologies to those around us at stoplights. Sometimes you gotta let loose!

Tell me about your children.

I have been blessed with two amazing children that are less than 16 months apart in age. Sarah Hazel is our three year old 'spirited' yet gentle little lady. She loves all things girly and has been found trying out my makeup on more than one occasion. She loves to perform for crowds and often entertains anyone who will watch. Right now her favorite song to perform is ‘Jingle Bells’ but for some reason, she thinks she made it up. Recently I took her to a local high school choral performance and when they started singing Jingle Bells, she was excited but highly confused that someone else knew the song. She turned to me with a puzzled look and said "Mommy, they are singing MY song." I love watching her discover everything for the first time! There is nothing better than seeing that excitement in her eyes and watching that sweet smile spread across her face. Even though I want to savor every second with her, I am also excited to see what the future has in store for my bright little star.

Speaking of stars, the other one that brightens my whole world is my little Cameron (21 months old). Even before he was born, my mommy instinct told me something was not quite right with my little guy. At birth he appeared healthy but as time went on he was diagnosed with a GI motility disorder after some serious intestinal issues. Even with that diagnosis I could feel that there was more going on however, no one else could see it. Over the next few months, his development was slow. He was not hitting milestones like he should have and the few words he had begun to say had completely disappeared. He also stopped growing which is what finally got the attention of his doctors. After many evaluations he was diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), Mixed Expressive Receptive Language Disorder (MERLD), and several developmental delays. Currently he is in speech, eating/feeding, and occupational therapies and also attends a center for special needs children where he is able to socialize with children his age and receive help in the areas he needs assistance on. Cameron has a long tough road ahead of him but we are not giving up. I spend a great deal of time researching his diagnosis and am passionate about getting him every bit of help he needs.

What surprised you most about parenting?

I think initially what surprised me most was how unprepared I was to give up so much of myself. I knew parenting would be hard and that I would not have a lot of free time but I don't think I ever thought about how exhausting but at the same time, how rewarding it really is. I remember right after my daughter was born I would get frustrated because I wanted to check email, watch TV, or shower when I wanted. I quickly realized that you have to lose every ounce of selfishness in your body and that time was now my child's and not mine. Once I let go of all of the expectations I had and just enjoyed the moment for what it was, life became so much easier. I guess you could say that I adapted to my kids schedule instead of the other way around. After all, I did not stay at home for me. I was staying at home to give myself fully to my children.

How have you had to be Avant Garde as a parent?

The obvious answer is would be about how I have had to fight and constantly find to new ways to parent and help Cameron with his needs. But I also have to constantly be in tune to Sarah Hazel and her emotions and desires. She has not been officially diagnosed with SPD like her brother but she has many sensitivities that can make or break her day. Recognizing and proactively dealing with what triggers both of my kids’ changes in emotions is the key to getting though each day. I guess it's not really innovative, but I am a firm believer in acting on ‘mother's instinct’ regardless of what others my say or think.

For more information about SPD and MERLD, please visit:


Allie's Blog- Little Baby Fields
Hartley's Life With 3 Boys
http://www.minddisorders.com/Kau-Nu/Mixed-receptive-expressive-language-disorder.html

Allie and Past Parents of the Week: Feel free to grab the Parent of the Week Badge:

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