Go Chase!
Watch this video and you will quickly remember why you decided to become a pediatric physical therapist! What a great story from the Reeve Foundation. Go Chase go!
National Inventor’s Month August 2009
Did you know that August is National Inventor’s Month? Why not incorporate this theme into some therapy sessions or carry over activities for at home? Here are some suggestions to help celebrate: 1. Working together with a child, determine a task that is difficult for them to achieve. See if you can create a simple […]
Energy Expenditure with Active Video Games
Pediatrics published research comparing the energy expenditure rates, heart rate, perceived exertion and step rate during television watching, playing Dance, Dance Revolution, Wii bowling and boxing and walking at different rates. The subjects were 14 boys and 9 girls ages 10-13 years old. The results indicated that energy expenditure increased two to three times when […]
5 Indoor Fitness Ideas For Kids
The days of running around neighborhoods freely and walking to school seem to be a thing of the past. Instead, children sit in front of a television or computer screen for hours a day. When the weather outside is bad, the television hours increase even more. Because of this, children lead more sedentary lifestyles than […]
Encouraging Tummy Time Handout
Came across this great hand out for parents to encourage tummy time for babies. It is 6 pages with great visual pictures to go along with the written material. It has been created by Orthomerica. Download Tummy Time Tools. A reader comment below and wanted to include the following resources on tummy time as well. […]
Task-Oriented Strength Training and Mobility for Children with Cerebral Palsy
NeuroRehabilitation published research on the effects of task-oriented strength training on mobility function in children with cerebral palsy. Five children with cerebral palsy (GMFCS I-III) were randomly assigned to an experimental group which received task-oriented strength training with a focus on the lower extremities for 5 weeks. This group also practiced functional tasks similar to […]
Higher Academic Scores for Physically Fit Children
The New York City Department of Health recently reviewed academic and fitness records of public school children in Grades K-8. This records review revealed the following:1. More than 20% of the students were obese and 18% are overweight totaling 38% of all students.2. Boys were more likely to be obese than girls (except among black […]
Musculoskeletal Problems in Obese Children
Annals of Family Medicine published research on self reported musculoskeletal problems in obese and overweight children. They studied 2459 children ages 2-11 years old of which 4.1% were overweight or obese. The overweight and obese children self reported significantly more musculoskeletal problems than normal weight peers. The musculoskeletal problems included back/neck pain and lower extremity […]
Autism, Proprioception and Visual Cues
The journal entitled Nature Neuroscience recently published research on how autistic children use proprioceptive information and visual information. The researchers concluded that autistic children relied much more on the proprioceptive information to learn new movement patterns rather than external visual cues when compared to typically developing peers. In addition, they found that the children who […]