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!
Teaching Shoe Tying – A Tool
We are lucky enough to have an OT back on staff and we have been loving the collaboration and idea generation! We have had quite a few kids come in that aren’t able to tie their shoes, and while velcro is an option, some of them want the shoes that have laces. So, in order […]
Furniture Glider Fun (working on motor control)
We frequently use furniture gliders with our kids. They have the benefit of adding challenge to strengthening exercises, as well as on the flip side making some movements easier to help with improving quality. The examples I am going to give below are ways we have used them to improve quality. First we made a […]
Learning to Walk with a Push Toy
Using a push toy is one way that little ones begin to practice walking. It gives them the support needed while they begin to figure out how to pick up their legs and take steps. As they are using a push toy, here are some things for you to think about: When they are […]
5 Ways to Use a Physioball
The Physioball is a great piece of equipment for kids of all ages! It can be used to strengthen different muscles and improve balance and control while still being fun. Here are 5 ideas to get you started, but the possibilities are endless if you just get creative! (And we’d love to hear your favorite […]
Looking at the Big Picture
When we provide physical or occupational therapy to kids, we are often asking parents about their child’s participation in life. Are there areas that they aren’t able to participate in fully or things that are really important to the child or family? For instance, if they go to a playground, will they readily […]
Vision and Balance
We recently talked about using eye masks to work on balance in one of our instagram stories. Here is the you tube video of that story: We have three systems that help us to maintain our balance: Vision, Vestibular, and Proprioceptive. We go into more detail about these systems in this post. Why would we […]
Halloween Spider Web
In the spirit of Halloween we decided to revisit one of our previous activities that we have written about before. We laid down a tape spider web using floor tape and we are leaving it out all month! The great thing is that we can vary the way that we use it. Here are a few […]
Guest Post: Speech, Language, & Feeding- An Easy Activity to Support All Three
In my practice, I see many little toddlers and preschoolers who come to me and aren’t speaking or aren’t speaking as clearly as they should for their age. Many times I find out that this little one is also a picky eater, meaning they limit their diet to a few favorite foods, most of them […]
Using a Walker to Improve Balance
We have a young man who has been working on walking his whole life. Recently due to growth spurts and other factors, he’s become more fearful of falling and having even more trouble with his balance when he walks. Using a walker has not been something he is interested in, and his parents have […]
Muscles – Stretching to New Lengths
I love being able to come up with analogies to help explain concepts that may be hard to visualize. I recently came up with this one for my dad who is doing some rehab on his knees. He wanted to know why when he worked on his stretching and was able to finally bend his […]