Talk Tummy To Me

Our SPROUT babies are the cutest clovers in the patch! 🍀

Happy International Women’s Day!

Check out some of our strong little ladies at our probono clinic working on achieving their functional goals💪

Our .classof23 did a great job administering the BOT-2 on this unbelievably strong 7 year old girl!

The BOT-2 measures fine and gross motor proficiency, with subtests that focus on stability, mobility, strength, coordination, and object manipulation. The test is tailored to school-aged children and young adults among the ages of 4-21 years.

Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
Our Valentine’s date is cuter than you.
Happy Valentine’s Day! 😍

To better understand how to address challenging behaviors, you need to understand the four possible functions of behavior.

S- SENSORY: the child finds the behavior self-soothing or satisfying. This might look like flapping their hands or rocking back and forth.

E- ESCAPE: the child wants to get out of their current situation. This might look like running away or destroying property.

A- ATTENTION: the child has a desire for the undivided attention of an adult or other child.

T- TANGIBLE: the child has a desire for attaining a particular object.

Stay tuned for some strategies to encourage positive behaviors!

The Soleus muscle is the decelerator of the body; it controls the momentum of the tibia. With decreased soleus activation, there are no brakes! In toe walkers, the soleus activity is decreased by 122%.
Due to an underactive soleus, the quads become more active to slow the tibia, therefore we often see our toe walkers using excessive knee extension during gait.

An efficient gait utilizes 10 degrees of dorsiflexion to facilitate passive force production. Shortening of these muscles during toe walking decreases the strength and contribution of the plantarflexor’s passive force production. Impaired calf muscle function causes an immediate compensatory reaction directed towards maintaining overall stability rather than speed. Therefore we see toe walking expends 53% more energy with the gastrocnemius muscles activated 76% more than in a typical ambulator.

Toe walking is neither an ideal nor efficient mode of human mobility. A child who toe walks is trying to meet a need that is worth the extra effort, dysfunction, and musculoskeletal damage. Our job as physical therapists is to find out what that need the child is trying to meet is. If we try to prevent the toe walking without meeting that need, then we limit our potential for success and invite recurrence of toe walking and its associated consequences.

Nursemaid's elbow is a common injury of early childhood where a child's elbow is pulled and partially dislocates. The medical term for the injury is "radial head subluxation." Because a young child's bones and muscles are still developing, it typically takes very little force to pull the bones of the elbow partially out of place, making this injury very common. It occurs most often in children ages 1 to 4, but can happen any time from birth up to age 6 or 7 years old.

Nursemaid's elbow often occurs when a caregiver holds a child's hand or wrist and pulls suddenly on the arm to avoid a dangerous situation or to help the child onto a step or curb. The injury may also occur during play when an older friend or family member swings a child around holding just the arms or hands. Nursemaid's elbow is rarely caused by a fall. If a child injures the elbow when falling onto an outstretched hand or directly onto the elbow, it may be a broken bone rather than nursemaid's elbow.

Because moving the injured arm may be painful, the primary symptom of nursemaid's elbow is that the child will hold the arm still at his or her side, and refuse to bend or rotate the elbow, or use the arm.

A pediatrician, family medicine physician, emergency room physician or orthopedic surgeon can typically make the diagnosis of nursemaid's elbow based on how the injury occurred and the manner in which the child holds his or her arm. In most cases of nursemaid's elbow, the doctor will gently move the bones back into normal position. The medical term for this procedure is "reduction."

To prevent the occurence of this injury, parents should:
❌Avoid tugging or pulling on a child’s hands or arms
❌Never swing a child by holding the hands or arms
❌Never lift a child by holding the hands or arms