The Role of PT in the Special Needs Child

Working as a Physical Therapist Asst. for many years, I have learned that people give many reasons for not participating in therapy. Among the reasons given is that the patient believes he/she will progress just the same with or without therapy. There may be a little truth to that statement although it is a statement without a full understanding of what physical therapy can accomplish if done consistently. Let me explain.

While we as parents may not have control over who our children will be as I believe that we all have a path in life that we are wired to follow, we do have control over abilities like strength, eye-hand coordination, thinking before we speak, manners, throwing a ball, socialization skills, etc. We have all seen the movies or read the books of what happens to children when we ignore them during their molding period. Often times we expect that our children will learn these things from osmosis and while there are some exceptions, most of these traits/skills are all learned.

It is the same with therapy, especially for a child with special needs. Children with special needs (CP, Ds, Autism, etc.) simply do not progress like children without these diagnoses. The muscles in children with special needs are not as balanced, meaning that some are weaker than others. It is this weakness that sets the child up to learn wrong movement patterns thereby just exacerbating the problem further because the weakness is never strengthened.

A Physical Therapist is trained to spot these bad movement patterns and to help the child learn the correct patterns thereby strengthening the muscles and bringing all the muscles more into balance. A person who is better balanced strength wise is going to have better posture and better coordination. Good balance also plays a role in good health. For example, a person with uneven balance distributes body weight differently over the hips, knees and ankles which can be deforming if not addressed. Also, poor posture can decrease ability to take deep breaths which can lead to other things.

So yes, a child/adult will heal from an injury or learn to walk, etc without the help of a Therapist but the quality of life will probably not be the same as if the person received therapy. So I leave you with this encouraging word - therapy is a much needed service in the life of your special needs child. We all want our children to grow up to lead happy, productive and long lives so it is important to give them the tools that they are going to need. Unfortunately, one of those tools requires learning how to use all of the muscles we have so they can move correctly. Make it a priority to take them to therapy sessions and to set aside time during the day to work with your child (even if it is 15 minutes). Our children are fully dependent upon us to provide everything for them.