Aquatic Pool Therapy For Special Needs Kids
Our pool from Hydroworx has arrived at our new building!
Our therapists have already moved ahead and started doing some of their training to be able to provide aquatic therapy in the pool. Our therapists Joanne and Amanda have gone to Aquatic Therapy University to do some of this training. We can’t wait to get this part of our therapy services going!
Why Pool Therapy?
You may wonder, why a pool? Why have we decided to add water therapy?
Everything’s easier in the water! Gravity is not a problem in the water. We’re more buoyant. At the same time, water provides proprioception, which is a sensory modality. Being in the pool also makes it much easier to grade up an activity than in land-based therapy. When our kids are in the water we can move them better, and we can help them get stronger by working against the water. It’s good exercise—think about how tired your body can feel after swimming a lap!
Why Pool Therapy Works
The pool also provides a different environment because the water is difficult to see into. When you look down into the water, everything looks distorted. This makes our clients have to get through the therapy session without relying on their normal vision cues—they have to focus on their bodies. Some of our clients are very visually dominant, so in the water, we’re able to pull them away from that and have them focus more on the other senses. Plus, visual processing in that environment is very different from visual processing on land, so we can work on those skills too.
Different Therapies The Pool Will Address
Therapy in the pool is going to involve all our different therapies—speech, occupational therapy and physical therapy. Even outside of the pool itself, the pool environment lets us work with many different visuals and cues, and allows us to combine different types of therapies at once. And some children really open up once they’re in the water, and use more language. Water play promotes social activities and skills as well!
And by the way, the water will be warm! The pool will be kept at close to 90 degrees, so it’s warm and comfortable.
Once we get the pool set up it is going to be an amazing addition to our services! We’re excited and we hope you are too! We will be giving frequent updates on our process here, so keep watching our social media (all of our accounts are the top right of our website)
