Our blogs are inspired by our passion for enhancing childhood development and pediatric physical therapy. We write for both parents and professionals and work to provide a mix of education, activity/treatment ideas, and our favorite toys. Because we write for you, we would love to know what topics you are interested in or what questions you have that we can answer!
Walking with a Hula Hoop
We have a lot of little ones who are working on getting independent with walking (or even just standing). I know I have shared a few ideas here before for some tips and tricks but here is another one. We have been using a hula hoop with a few of them. This has worked well […]
Toy Selection for Young Kids
There is an overwhelming amount of choices in the toy stores these days and we live in a time where digital and electronic games are increasingly being used to replace physical toys. Should we be buying toys marketed as educational? What should our developing children be playing with? As physical therapists, we get asked a […]
Teaching Rolling – Stomach to Back
This is one that I find harder to teach little ones. A lot of time it comes about naturally as they spend more time on their tummy, and also begin to push up more onto their extended arms. This is why it is really important to encourage tummy time and prone skills. To work on […]
Teaching Rolling – Back to Stomach
Rolling is one of the first forms of independent mobility your child will learn how to do. This is when they start to learn that they can control their body to explore their environment. In terms of teaching rolling I always find it easier to teach them how how to go from their back to […]
Single Leg Stance with a Ball and a Wall
Was walking through the clinic the other day and saw this great idea for working on single leg stance. I’ve also tried it with a few other kids and it’s great! Start with a softer, squisher ball to make it easier. We like to use a Gertie style ball. Have the child stand next to […]
Encouraging Balance Reactions
One of our therapists was recently working on balance reactions with a child and I thought it was such a great simple idea. You take some Squigz and put them on a surface. We don’t have a good child height surface so we use a wedge. The goal is for the child to pull them […]
Encouraging the Non-Dominant Leg
We will often have kids who have a very strong preference for one leg over the other when they are doing functional activities. Because they rely so heavily on the one leg, it gets stronger and that continues the cycle of them wanting to use just that leg. While it would be great for them […]
Torticollis – Can I Wait and See
We have discussed torticollis a few times over the last several months. We highlighted the 5 common signs of Torticollis. To recap, those are as follows: Always looking in the same direction Head tilting Feeding difficulties Flattening of the head Facial asymmetry As stated in the last article, torticollis has become more prevalent with babies spending more […]
Ball Throws For Core Strength
One of our therapists recently used a ball activity to work on core strength. To make it even more fun, we did an experiment to see what was easier and what was more challenging. We took a variety of different ball sizes and then played catch with them. What made it into a core activity […]
Using a Therapy Ball for Torticollis
We have talked a lot about torticollis recently thanks to the new guidelines that were recently published. Here we talk about 5 signs of torticollis, and here we talk about ways to prevent torticollis. We also have a great resource handout for parents and caregivers that we will gladly pass along (please email us for […]