Pediatric physical therapy (PT)

What is pediatric physical therapy (PT)?

Physical therapy (PT) is a planned program of activities that will help improve your child’s movement or pain.

A licensed physical therapist examines your child and plans treatment based on your doctor’s request and the therapist’s evaluation of your child’s needs.

Why does my child need pediatric physical therapy (PT)?

Our patients who are being treated as inpatients may need physical therapy to help them regain movement skills or prepare for a return home. We also provide outpatient physical therapy to children who have a number of conditions and chronic diseases.

For example, your child with cerebral palsy (CP) might need physical therapy throughout their life to improve muscle strength and movement, and to prevent joints from stiffening. Physical therapy is the main treatment for torticollis, tightening of an infant’s neck muscles that can lead to problems with movement, balance or your child’s skeletal development.

Examples of other conditions in children and adolescents that might require physical therapy include:

• Amputations
• Bone tumors
• Brain tumor
• Congenital (present at birth) differences in limb length
• Developmental delays
• Muscular dystrophy (MD)
• Orthopedic injuries
• Problems with gait
• Problems with visual, motor or perceptual development
• Spina bifida
• Spinal cord injury
• Traumatic brain injury

What are the benefits of pediatric physical therapy (PT)?

If your child or adolescent is injured or has problems with movement because of a disability or chronic illness, your doctor may recommend physical therapy. The purpose of physical therapy is to maintain or restore movement or range of motion, to help ease pain and help patients prevent injuries. Sometimes, physical therapy can replace surgery or medication in treating a problem.

What happens at my child's first pediatric physical therapy (PT) appointment?

At the first visit (evaluation), be prepared to answer plenty of questions about your child’s health or support your adolescent’s interview with answers about family medical history. The physical therapist will thoroughly evaluate your child during the first visit, and may ask your child to perform certain activities to observe how the body functions and moves or to measure muscle strength. For example, the therapist might have your child walk across the room.

The therapist may start your child on a program right away. The therapist develops a series of movements or activities and provides education to you and your child. The program might include regular exercises or activities to perform at home between visits with the therapist.

What happens after the pediatric physical therapy (PT) evaluation?

Results

The evaluation results will state if your child could benefit from occupational, physical, and/or speech therapy.

• In about 1 week request a copy of the report through the MyChart patient portal
• We will send the report to the doctor that referred your child to therapy and the insurance company, if required.

If pediatric physical therapy (PT) is recommended:

1. Request for insurance approval - Most insurance companies require approval for therapy. We will submit the evaluation results and therapy recommendations to your insurance for approval. This process can take anywhere from one to 30 days.
   • This is not a guarantee and there are sometimes circumstances that can lengthen or shorten the wait.
2. Insurance approval recieved - Once the approval or denial for therapy has been received, we will contact you. If therapy was approved we will schedule your child’s next therapy visit.
3. Scheduling - Availability of scheduling at each location will depend on the treating therapists schedule and recommendations.
   • Consistent schedule (ie: same day and/or time each week for the time frame of the approval)
   • Session to session
     • We often have a wait list for therapy in some disciplines for certain times of the day.
       • If your preferred time is not available, we will place your child on a wait list.
       • Please check in often with the front desk for an update on your preferred time if your child is placed on the waiting list.

If you have not heard from us in 2 weeks, we recommend that you call us for an update on your insurance approval and/or scheduling. We want to make sure we are answering your questions as we work through this process together.

How do I prepare my child for their pediatric physical therapy (PT) appointment?

Before your child or adolescent sees a physical therapist for the first time, it helps to let the child know that the therapist will work together with the child to improve the problem your child is having. Remind the child that, like a doctor or nurse, the physical therapist has to look at and touch parts of the child’s body.

Develop a list of questions that you and your child have and discuss or make notes about the symptoms or pain your child is experiencing, such as times of day that the problem is worse, or what types of movement or positions make it worse.