Who are we?
Paediatric Physiotherapists work with babies, children and young people, up until the age of when you leave school or college.
We have a special understanding of how babies and children learn how to do big movements such as, rolling, crawling, standing, walking, running and jumping. You may here these being called Gross Motor Skills.
We understand how bones and muscles change as we grow and get taller.
We understand how our brains are very important, as not only do they help us to become learn how to read and write, they help us learn how to crawl and walk, and jump and dance, by sending lots and lots of messages to our muscles telling them how and when to work. Sometimes these messages can get a bit mixed up and the wrong message goes to the wrong muscle. This may mean that you cannot move in the way you want to.
Why am I coming to see a Physiotherapist?
There are many reasons why you might come to see a Physiotherapist, you may:
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Be finding it tricky to learn how to do some movements such as sitting up or walking,
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You may find running, jumping or balancing difficult.
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You may have fallen over and hurt yourself, or broken a bone.
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You may have had an operation and need some help to get moving again
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You may be having some pain in your muscles or joints from growing.
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Your muscles may be weak and you are struggling to do certain things.
What do Physiotherapists do?
Your Physio will firstly listen to you to see what is hurting you or what it is your finding difficult. They will then have a good look at you. They may ask you to put some shorts and T shirts on, or even take you top of so we can see how your body is moving. They will often feel your muscles and joints by bending and stretching your arms and legs, - this should not hurt you, but may tickle!!! Then they may ask you to do little challenges to see how you sit up walk or run. This will help us to work out what it we need to do to help.
We will ask you what it is that you want to be able to do and then we will give you some things to do to help you achieve your goals, we will try to do this around games and activities you enjoy doing.
Things we might do in physio:
- Stretches to help keep your muscles long as you grow and so that you can bend and straighten your arms and legs.
- Exercises to help your muscles be as strong as they can to help you sit up, stand or walk.
- We may ask you to do little challenges to help you learn how to learn new movements or to help you balance.
- Sometimes we will give you some special equipment to help you do your exercises or stretches.
Your physio will work with you to help you learn how to do your stretches and exercises, we will also teach your mum and dad (or whoever looks after you) how to do the exercises, we may even teach your teachers so they can help you in school.
What do I have to do?
Your physio will do their best to help you achieve the most you can, but you will also need to do bit to help. Just like a dentist checks your teeth and helps you look after them, you must brush your teeth twice a day to keep them clean, or like a doctor will give you medicine if you're feeling unwell, you must take your medicine several times a day to get better.
You will need to do the stretches and exercises your physio gives you.