Physical Therapy- Developing Strength for Tomorrow

For children facing injuries, physical challenges or long-term disabilities, physical therapy for children at Driscoll Children's Hospital Rehabilitation Center can offer an opportunity for life-changing progress.
Physical therapy at Driscoll’s rehabilitation Center is specifically designed to meet the needs of infants, children or adolescence who need frequent or high-intensity therapy. An interdisciplinary focus and a facility specifically equipped for rehabilitation programs ensure that accident, disease and developmental disabilities don’t keep any child from reaching his or her full potential.

What Physical Therapy Offers
Physical therapy help patients develop or recapture gross motor skills and mobility skills through specific therapeutic exercises and mobility training. Physical therapist collaborate with occupational therapists, physicians and other specialists to maximize each child’s potential with specific programs customized to each patients unique needs.

Therapists use positive, age-appropriate activities to focus on increasing endurance, muscle strength, range of motion, muscle flexibility, positioning, sensory responsiveness and other areas as needed.
Who Can Benefit from Physical Therapy

Physical therapy can benefit infants, children or adolescence who have:

• Rehabilitation Needs, such as brain injury, spinal cord injury, multiple trauma and neurologic insult or dysfunction.
• Orthopaedic conditions, including limited range of motion or mobility, decrease strength or endurance, fractures, burns, strains and sprains
• Connective tissue disease, such as juvenile rheumatoid arthritis
• Neonatal conditions in high risk infants
• Learning disabilities, including delayed fine and gross motor development
• Sports injuries
• Conditions requiring special treatment modalities, such as TENS, biofeedback for pain control, whirlpool, hot pack, ultrasound
• Multiple handicapping conditions, such as:
• Cerebral palsy
• Muscular dystrophy
• Spina bifida
• Congenital anomalies
• Residual disabilities related to trauma or infection
• Customized to Each Patients Needs

We create a customized physical therapy program, based on the child’s individual needs.

• Initial Evaluation measures development objectively to create a program best suited for the patient. Therapists evaluate muscle strength, joint range of motion, reflexes, posture, gait, gross motor skills, wheelchair and adaptive equipment needs.
• Customized Treatments helps each child maximize his or her potential for development, strength and movement with the latest combination of rehabilitation and habitation techniques.
• Ongoing Consultations with patients, family, parents, teachers, physicians ensure appropriate therapeutic intervention, equipment and the best environment for the child.
  How Physical Therapy Meets Parents Needs
  It’s never too early to being physical therapy.
• Early therapeutic intervention helps stimulate normal development, reinforce a healthy self-concept and promote emotional maturation.
• Physical therapy for patients of any age can increase independence, mobility and social adjustment.
• The ability to provide high-intensity, high-frequency therapy allows patients to return home while still receiving the frequency and intensity of therapy they may need on a daily basis.
• By improving mobility and muscle strength, physical therapy helps avoid complications and future disabilities.

All-In-One Advantage
Physical therapists at Driscoll Children's Hospital use a strong interdisciplinary approach to improve all of the patient’s sensory motor functions. They also work closely with specialists and therapists in other areas to create a comprehensive program for each patient. Reinforcing physical therapy with home-based exercise programs can increase progress made by physical therapy patients.

Family-Centered Care – Partners in Treatment
Our physical therapists believe strongly in the power of family encouragement and involvement. Parent or those close to the patient are encouraged to attend therapy sessions.

Instructing and educating the parents can often be as important as the skills and practice the child receives. The family plays an important role in reinforcing and following through with the therapies at home. Therapists will work with the family to identify and help obtain any appropriate equipment the child needs o function at home.

A Staff Committed to Meeting Your Needs
The success of physical therapy depends on the staff who are both well educated and committed to the success of each patient. All our therapists hold bachelors or advanced degrees from university programs and attend additional training courses each year to further their specialized knowledge.