Pediatric physical therapy

The power of physical therapy to help kids get back to being kids

From toddler to teen, the results of our pediatric physical therapy program help improve the lives of the children we treat and the families who love them.

At RUSH Kids Pediatric Therapy, our focus is on your child.

Here, your child will be in good hands with our team of licensed physical therapists — dedicated experts in one-on-one care for kids needing help with mobility, muscle strength and motor skills.

Put simply, we help children move better, grow stronger and build independence.

At any age, when a child shows signs of difficulty with daily activity or keeping up with peers, it can signal worry in a parent.

The same is true for parents of children with special needs or medical conditions.

Our program addresses both developmental and orthopedic conditions as well as neuromuscular issues. These words can sound scary at first, but the experience of our team will put you at ease.

Our approach to helping restore and improve pediatric conditions with physical therapy

The goal of our physical therapy program is to restore mobility so your child can be active in family, school and social settings.

Our clinicians use play-based therapies and traditional physical therapy treatments to help build strength, balance and coordination.

We also work on motor skills:

• Gross motor skills for rolling, crawling, walking, running
• Fine motor skills for using hands and fingers

Through physical therapy we can help with the following conditions and their symptoms:

• Brain trauma and injuries — muscles can become stiff, movement becomes difficult
• Cerebral palsy —impacts muscle tone, movement or posture, unsteady gait
• Developmental delays — arms and legs may be uncoordinated; head and neck movement may not be at the medical milestone
• General orthopedic — bone breaks, fractures, joint, ligament, tendon or muscle strain, sprain or injury
• Genetic disorders — affecting genes or chromosomes and resulting in syndromes like Down syndrome (developmental and intellectual delays), cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophies (muscle mass and weakness)
• Gross motor skills — lack of strength, coordination and balance to propel movement
• Headaches — from illness, injury or head trauma; rarely causes motor issues
• Hypertonia or hypotonia — abnormally high or weak muscle tone, respectively; can cause poor grip strength or heightened grip strength
• Poor posture
• Post-concussion symptoms — headaches, dizziness and ringing in the ears
• Spina bifida — weakness or paralysis of the lower limbs; difficulty with fine motor skills to grip and manipulate items
• Sports-related conditions — overuse, improper form or injury that causes discomfort or pain.
• Torticollis — disparity in length of two major back muscles that causes neck strain or rigidity that pulls the head to one side resulting in a tilt that can lead to skull deformity

Professional treatment can help improve, reverse or correct any of these conditions. The earlier the treatment, the more effective.

For children experiencing mobility symptoms from an injury, bone/muscle, genetic, brain or spine disorder, RUSH Kids can help.