Pediatric Physical Therapy in Fort Smith & Fayetteville, AR

You can likely tell if your child needs physical therapy if you see that they struggle with movement. Physical therapy aims to help children improve their abilities to crawl, walk, run, jump, climb, and other key developmental skills that use large muscle groups for movement. If your child struggles with any of those activities, you should speak with their pediatrician about your concerns to see if you can get a referral for physical therapy.

If you still aren’t sure if physical therapy is the right treatment for your child, you can check out our Developmental Milestones resource on our website. We break down all of the milestones your child should achieve between birth and age five so that you can determine if your child is on track or if they need a little more support to reach their physical goals.

The absolute best way to know if your child needs physical therapy is to schedule an evaluation with our experts at Little Hands at Play. We can complete a thorough evaluation of your child’s abilities and limitations to determine if they are on track developmentally or if they could use extra support from our team to be able to move their body freely.

Pediatric physical therapy can address any condition that impacts a child’s ability to move their body the way they want to. This can include developmental delays, as well as recovery from an injury or surgery. Some of the most common conditions that our physical therapists at Little Hands at Play can address include: 

• Developmental delays
• Cerebral palsy
• Spina bifida
• Muscular dystrophy
• Down syndrome
• High or low muscle tone
• Sports injuries
• Torticollis
• Post-surgical recovery
• Limb differences
• Coordination difficulties
• Balance and mobility challenges
• Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis

We use therapeutic exercises, stretches, and play-based activities to help children build the strength, endurance, flexibility, and other key skills they need for effective movement. And the best part is that your child is never too young to start pediatric physical therapy. We can even work with babies who are struggling to hold up their heads or meet key milestones like rolling over or sitting up on their own. 

If your child is having trouble with any area of movement that affects their ability to play, learn, explore, or do things independently, our pediatric physical therapists can help.

When you bring your child to Little Hands at Play Therapy for their physical therapy evaluation, you’ll meet with a member of our team to discuss your child’s development. We’ll ask you about their milestones, any challenges you’ve noticed your child is facing, any diagnoses they have, and get more information from you about your concerns. 

Next, we’ll do a thorough assessment of your child’s physical skills and limitations. This can include observation, where we simply watch to see how your child moves while playing or exploring to determine the types and severity of any challenges they’re facing. It can also include specific activities done with the physical therapist to determine what skills your child can do and which ones they need more support to achieve. 

Once the assessment is completed, our physical therapist will speak with you to explain what they found, as well as answer any questions you might have about the results of the assessment. Then we’ll recommend the appropriate treatment plan for your child and work with you to determine the best therapy schedule that fits your family’s needs.

Physical therapy addresses your child’s ability to move their body freely. Because of this, it’s often very easy for parents to see that their child is making progress during their therapy sessions with our experts. This is simply because your child will find it easier to do certain tasks and activities as therapy progresses that they struggled to handle before they started their treatment. 

But we also have our own ways of measuring progress to ensure that your child’s treatment is on track with their needs. Our pediatric physical therapists can measure certain movement areas such as strength, flexibility, pain level, balance, and others during your child’s evaluation to determine their starting point. Then, as they attend their routine therapy sessions, we will continually gauge how your child is doing in these areas and adjust our treatments as needed to help your child improve their physical skills. 

We may not necessarily be able to give you a test score like your child would receive in school that tells you how well they are doing. But we can explain to you what improvements they have made and how far they have come as therapy progresses. And ultimately, you will be able to see for yourself as your child gains their developmental skills and achieves new levels of independence and confidence. 

A typical pediatric therapy session lasts anywhere from 30-60 minutes depending on your child’s specific needs. These sessions can happen once per week, twice per week, or more often based on your availability. We may recommend more time if your child has a condition that severely impacts their ability to move freely, such as cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy.

In addition to your child’s routine therapy sessions with our experts, we will recommend activities for you to do at home with your child between sessions. This is an important part of their treatment because the more time your child spends working on their physical skills, the sooner they will be able to achieve their milestones and gain independence in movement. And because you spend more time with your child than their therapist does, you have the opportunity to help them achieve these goals throughout the week.

Our expert pediatric physical therapists will work with you to determine the best treatment schedule and session length for your child’s needs. Our goal is to ensure that your child has the right amount of support to help them achieve their developmental milestones as quickly as possible so that they can move their body freely.

Pediatric physical therapy is aimed at improving a child’s gross motor skills to help them reach key developmental milestones. The entire purpose of physical therapy is to develop these key skills so that your child can move, play, and explore as independently as possible. But there are several different ways that our expert pediatric therapists can help your child achieve this goal.

We may work with them on specific exercises that are designed to target and strengthen key muscle groups. We may also work with your child on stretches to help them improve their flexibility and range of motion, or activities that improve their balance and coordination. Above all, we keep each session fun and playful.

Many parents get worried because it looks like our physical therapists are simply playing with your child during their sessions. But this is actually a proven, research-backed approach to pediatric therapy because children learn best by playing and exploring. When our therapists invite your child to play and explore, we are carefully guiding them towards activities and movements that will help them build their physical skills. And because it’s fun, your child stays motivated and can enjoy coming to physical therapy every week.

Your child’s pediatric physical therapy sessions will include activities and exercises specifically chosen to help them build key developmental skills. Because every child is different, their needs, abilities, and limitations will always be taken into account before our expert physical therapists create a therapy plan for your child.

This therapy plan will include key areas for our therapists to work on with your child, such as balance, strength, muscle tone, or flexibility. During your child’s therapy sessions, our expert physical therapists will work with them on these key areas in a fun, playful way to encourage and motivate your child to participate. We use exercises, stretches, activities, and games designed to build your child’s physical skills for better movement.

Some of these activities can include riding a tricycle, planking, rolling, swinging, balancing on a balance ball, doing an obstacle course, dancing, or other fun games that children enjoy. But while we’re working on these activities, rest assured that your child’s physical therapist is carefully guiding and observing your child to help them build their movement skills for better play, exploration, and independence.

The best therapy schedule for your child’s needs will be determined after their evaluation by our expert pediatric physical therapists. While we generally schedule children for sessions once per week, it may be better for your child to attend sessions twice per week if they need more support to achieve their developmental milestones. Our team will work with you to find the best schedule that fits both your child’s needs and your family’s availability.

It’s best to keep in mind that the more often your child attends therapy sessions and practices their developmental skills, the sooner they will achieve results. It is similar to trying to learn a new language. Would you learn faster if you attended a language class for an hour once per week, or if you attended multiple times per week and spent time practicing in between classes?

When it comes to pediatric physical therapy, the more often our experts can work with your child, the better. We may also give you things to do at home with your child between sessions that will help them continue to achieve their developmental goals for lasting success.

As a parent, you play a crucial role in supporting your child’s physical therapy progress. While our therapists get to work with your child for a limited time each week, you get to spend every day with your child, and that time can be used to work on their developmental goals. One way you can do this is by following any home program that your child’s therapist gives you. The home program may include exercises and activities you can do with your child that will help them practice key developmental skills as part of their overall therapy plan.

Additionally, your support and encouragement both during physical therapy sessions and at home can really motivate your child! Children are more likely to both enjoy and benefit from therapy when they see that their family is on board and participating. This helps your child see how their hard work is paying off.

Finally, you can support your child’s progress by staying in contact with their physical therapist. Keeping us updated on how your child’s home program is going allows us to make any necessary adjustments to their home exercises. We can also offer guidance on how to manage any challenges you’re experiencing and give you the support you need to help your child thrive.