While each neurological condition has its unique clinical features and the children may present quite differently in their abilities even when they have the same diagnosis, our main goal is to maximise the potential of the child’s physical skills and independence after our comprehensive assessment. We achieve this through the following ways:
We spend time with the parents and where possible the child to understand their strengths and weaknesses so we can together create realistic and achievable goals. The goals created help support your child’s NDIS plan and funding. We utilise the F-words framework for goal setting. The F-words help parents and therapists focus on key areas of child development when setting goals and help children to participate in their activities of daily living. The key 6 area’s are; Functioning, Family, Fitness, Fun, Friends, and Future. You can find out more about F-words and how we use it at Ready Steady Therapy in our blog post.
Ready Steady Therapy’s treatment approach is centred around the child and play. Sessions include age-appropriate play-based activities and exercises to improve the child’s flexibility, strength, balance, coordination, gross motor skills and independence. We provide our treatment in the community in natural settings for your child. This means physio sessions take place in your family home, child care centre, school, the park or playground, communal sports facility or swimming pool. A home exercise program is devised with you and your physio so you can complete activities with your child during a time that suits your family. Commitment to a home exercise program is a fundamental part of your child’s physiotherapy treatment and is required to support their progress and maximise their success.
Some children will require assistive technology to increase their participation and access to physical activity. Types of equipment we commonly assess and support NDIS funding for are specialist seating, standing frames, walkers and other mobility equipment. Specialist equipment gives your child the opportunity to be in more upright, good postures and supports them to participate in their family and school activities as much as possible. You can find out more about Ready Steady Therapy’s Equipment Prescription service here.
Good orthotics and shoes allow the child to stand and walk more efficiently and without pain. We link in with your child’s Orthotist to provide them with information about your child’s physical skills, walking pattern and orthotic needs. We’ve written a blog post on orthotics and shoes for children, so if you’d like more information head to our blog post.
Your child spends a significant amount of time in their childcare centre or school, which means they have plenty of opportunity to practise their physical skills whilst at day care or school and even more opportunity to sit and rest in unhelpful positions! Through working with the child care staff and school teachers, we can encourage your child to carry their physical abilities across all the different areas of their daily life.
At Ready Steady Therapy we like to work holistically with you and your child’s team so we can provide a family centred approach. No therapy or service works in isolation because your child needs to utilise all areas of their development to achieve new skills.
Here’s an example of how we work with other providers:
When working with a child who needs to practise their independent sitting skills, we complete joint sessions with the Speech Pathologist to integrate their communication device into sitting activities so they can play switch operated games. We work with the OT to learn the best activities for the child to complete with their hands in sitting and to ensure good sitting postures. And we work with the child’s care team so they feel confident in completing the child’s sitting activities without therapist involvement.
So we are not ‘just’ working on sitting in physio but we are working towards the development of the child’s communication, play skills, engaging with their environment in upright postures and capacity building of parents or carers.