Pediatric Therapy

The Pediatric Therapy Team at SLV Health ProTherapy includes licensed therapists who specialize in pediatric occupational, physical, speech/language, and feeding/swallowing therapy.

The Pediatric Therapy Team utilizes an interdisciplinary approach to ensure that your child receives consistent, effective therapy across disciplines. We meet as a team at least once per month to complete continuing education and collaborate with patient care.

Pediatric Therapy Services Brochure

Call 719-589-8100 for more information. Visit your primary care provider to learn if pediatric therapy can benefit your child and to obtain a referral.

We look forward to helping your child to achieve success in every environment.

Pediatric Physical Therapy

Pediatric Physical Therapy (PT) is beneficial for children who experience difficulty in coordinating gross motor movements such as running and riding a bike. Pediatric physical therapy can also improve children’s strength and coordination. It can help to facilitate motor development and function and improve strength and endurance. Physical therapy may help children and caregivers to ease challenges with activities of daily living in order to help children better interact with the world around them.

Injuries that physical therapy helps include:

Back injuries from an accident
Broken bones and rebuilding muscle strength after removing a cast
Chronic foot or leg pain
Injuries to the tendons
Pain in the shoulders
Sports injuries while playing at school
Sprains and strains

Conditions that might require physical therapy include:

Cerebral palsy
Arthritis
Chronic pain, particularly in the back
Heart conditions
Lung conditions
Abnormal spine development or growth that causes complications with mobility or muscle control

A child may benefit from pediatric physical therapy if he or she:

Demonstrates gaze preference to one side
Presents with flattening of the head
Tilts head to one side
Does not kick feet or bear weight through legs by 6 months of age
Uses hitch crawling or scoots
Uses one side of the body more than the other
W sits
Walks on toes
Uses atypical movement patterns
Has trouble skipping or doing jumping jacks (school age)
Uses poor posture consistently
Is unable to walk up and down the stairs (if older than 4 years of age)

Pediatric Occupational Therapy

Pediatric Occupational Therapy (OT) promotes children’s success in playing, learning, and socializing throughout the day as well as daily life skills such as dressing, bathing, and toileting, among other skills. It helps to support a child’s development of self-control, fine motor coordination, organization, and social functioning, among other areas.

According to the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), children with the following medical problems may benefit from OT:

Autism Spectrum Disorder
Birth injuries or birth defects
Broken bones or other orthopedic injuries
Burns
Cancer
Developmental Delay
Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis
Learning problems
Mental health or behavioral problems
Multiple Sclerosis, Cerebral Palsy, and other chronic illnesses
Post-surgical conditions
Sensory processing disorders
Severe hand injuries
Spina Bifida
Traumatic amputations
Traumatic injuries (brain or spinal cord)

A child may benefit from pediatric occupational therapy if he or she:

Experiences frequent, intense meltdowns
Has difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep
Has an excessive need for intense movement (jumping, rocking, swinging, spinning)
Becomes upset with changes in routine, unexpected changes, or transitions
Is excessively cautious and afraid to try new things
Demonstrates poor concentration and attention
Is bothered by certain textures of clothing
Demonstrates impulsivity or decreased safety awareness
Uses obsessive behaviors
Is clumsy, awkward, or accident prone
Is under or over-reactive to touch, lights, sounds, smell, temperature, or movement
Has difficulty separating from caregivers
Avoids or is slow to engage in new experiences
Has difficulty with self-care activities such as dressing, tooth brushing, etc.
Has difficulty using appropriate grip form and strength for writing, cutting, gluing, etc.

Pediatric Speech/Language Therapy

Pediatric Speech/Language Therapy (ST) helps children to learn to use words or other modes of communication. Speech/language therapy can improve language expression and comprehension as well as a child’s ability to pronounce speech sounds. Speech therapy can also help children to improve their social language abilities in order to help them to form more meaningful social relationships with family members and peers.

A child may benefit from speech and/or language services if he or she has difficulty:

Expressing feelings and ideas clearly
Orienting the listener to the time/place/characters in a personal narrative
Learning/using specific vocabulary (uses words such as "thing" or "stuff" often)
Understanding/answering questions about verbally presented info
Following directions
Creating grammatical sentences and using age-appropriate grammar
Understanding and reading social cues
Playing appropriately with same-age peers
Pronouncing developmentally appropriate sounds correctly
Being understood by family members, teachers, and less familiar conversation partners
Speaking in a smooth, effortless manner (stuttering)
Speaking with a clear, healthy voice (pediatric voice disorder)

Pediatric Swallowing/Feeding Therapy

Pediatric swallowing and feeding therapy help to support safe and adequate nutrition and hydration in children with feeding and swallowing difficulties. It can help families to determine optimum feeding methods to maximize swallowing safety and efficiency. It also provides positive feeding-related experiences to the extent possible, given the child’s medical situation.

A child may benefit from feeding/swallowing therapy if he or she:

Has difficulty chewing foods, typically swallowing food in whole pieces
Has difficulty swallowing foods or refuses to swallow certain types of food consistencies
Refuses to eat certain food textures or has difficulty transitioning from one texture to another texture (ex: from bottle feedings to purees, from purees to soft solids or mixed textured foods)
Struggles to control and coordinate moving food around in the mouth, chewing and preparing to swallow food
Fussy or irritable with feeding
The child seems congestion during feedings or after
Frequently coughs or gags when eating
Frequently vomits during or immediately after eating or drinking
Refuses or rarely tries new foods
Has difficulty transitioning from gastric tube (G tube) feedings to oral feedings
Negative mealtime behaviors (infant cries, arches, pulls away from food; the child refuses to eat, tantrums at mealtimes or “shuts-down” and does not engage in mealtime)
Infant demonstrating signs of difficulty with coordinating the suck/swallow/breath pattern during bottle or breastfeeding
Feeding time taking longer than 30 minutes for infants, and 30 to 40 minutes for toddlers or young children