Hi, I’m Dr. Anne Wolfe,
I’m pediatric physical therapist and the Clinical Manager at Emerge Pediatric Therapy in Carrboro and here are the three things that your pediatric PT wants you to know.
1. Milestones
Childhood developmental milestones include ranges for a reason, however, if a child is falling to the low end of a milestone range or outside the typical time for development a “wait and see” approach is rarely helpful. For many children a trend of late milestones can be very impactful on continued motor skill acquisition. This can also greatly impact their ability to play with same age peers. A physical therapy evaluation can best assess a child’s gross motor development and help get them on the right track to meeting their milestones.
2. Crawling
Crawling is important! Although it was recently removed from the CDC’s list of developmental milestones for infants it remains an important skill for many reasons. For children that don’t crawl there is often an underlying cause that prevents them from being able to crawl. Often infants who do not tolerate tummy time have difficulty acquiring crawling. Crawling has the following benefits :
- It is a great way to improve core strength, often children who don’t crawl lack enough core strength to maintain a hands and knees position.
- Crawling is a full body movement! It is one of the first complex bilateral coordination tasks since it involves reciprocal movement of arms and legs.
- Crawling assists with reflex integration of the Symmetric Tonic Neck Reflex (STNR) by facilitating the head moving through different planes of movement while the arms and legs stay in a static position.
3. Movement Difficulty
Kids are inherently built for movement and exploration. Although all children have their own temperaments there are no “lazy children” by choice. If a child has difficulty with gross motor movements they will be less likely participate in physical activity, however, with the right amount of support and motivation we can improve their ability to participate in desired activities with family and peers.
Parents:
Click here to get started with an Emerge PT!
Physicians:
Click here to make a PT referral!