One question we often get is, “Does my child need physical therapy?”
Sometimes it’s obvious that your child could benefit from physical therapy. Sometimes when you teach a child a new skill such as walking, running, or jumping, it can be obvious that the child is struggling.
Does Your Child Have Trouble Sitting Still?
But often a child has already developed a basic skill, but they haven’t learned how to refine it. For instance, when we see a kiddo who is constantly running and jumping and spinning all over the place, and who just can’t sit still, that shows that they have a lack of control. (We call these kids “runners.”) We typically see difficulties with these kids when they have to sit still and learn a new task because they haven’t developed the refined skill of control. When they’re jumping and spinning and purposefully falling, that tells us they’re having a problem with midrange control.
How We Help Kids Refine Their Skills
When we get to work with kids who already have a basic skill, we love it! We love it because we get to play a lot of games and use a lot of our tools to teach how to really control and refine a movement. As we get older we’re all required to refine our movement patterns and learn a lot of higher-level skills. Learning higher-level gross motor coordination translates really well into learning higher-level skills in speech therapy, and in occupational therapy.
We always recommend physical therapy even if a child has a basic skill, so they can learn to refine it.
If you have any questions about physical therapy, we’d love to answer them!
