Rehabilitation Medicine at Children’s Health

At Children’s Health℠, our rehabilitation medicine team serves patients with a wide variety of conditions. We are a national leader in pediatric rehabilitative medicine, with deep experience customizing treatment to a child’s unique health, cultural and personal needs. Whether your child has a mild health issue or a rare, unusual or unknown condition, we are here to help.

Our rehabilitation medicine providers use the latest technology and techniques for treating children. And our team has more pediatric rehabilitation medicine specialists than any other provider in the United States.

What is Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine?

Rehabilitation medicine is a combination of therapies that treats health conditions resulting from an illness or injury. Pediatric rehabilitation medicine helps children with certain health needs do daily activities like walking, talking, bathing, dressing and grooming. We work to make these things easier for children as they grow and develop.

Our team at Children’s Health brings their varied expertise together to address all obstacles your child is experiencing. That way, we can help ensure your child lives a more fulfilling, comfortable and independent life.

Rehabilitation medicine can help your child:

• Move and improve their range of motion
• Become more independent
• Express their thoughts and feelings better
• Learn at school
• Develop social skills
• Experience less pain

Our pediatric rehabilitation medicine doctors (called physiatrists) will assess all of all your child’s functions to understand the bigger picture of your child’s overall health. Then, they will prescribe and coordinate your child’s therapy program. This program will include a mix of physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech and language therapy that will depend on your child’s unique health needs. Our specialized therapists will then carry out your child’s prescribed therapy program.

Why might my child need Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine?

Developmental disabilities, birth defects, injuries and recovering from surgery can make it harder for children to perform daily life tasks. Rehabilitation medicine can help children who are affected by things like:

• ADHD and autism
• Brain or spinal cord injuries
• Cerebral palsy and other developmental disabilities
• Recovering from surgery
• Surviving a stroke
• Recovering from cancer or cancer treatment
• Spina bifida, heart defects and other health issues present at birth

What treatments are involved in Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine?

Each type of therapy in rehabilitation medicine offers different treatments. For physical therapy, treatment may focus on:

• Building strength, stamina and coordination through aquatic therapy or constraint induced motor therapy
• Relieving pain and improving mobility associated with extreme muscle tension through dry needling or trigger point injections
• Encouraging muscle movement through electrical stimulation or lokomat therapy

Your child’s occupational therapy program may include things like:

• Working on fine motor skills with handwriting therapy
• Learning to use adaptive equipment, such as a wheelchair or walker
• Working on gross motor skills, such as visual and perceptual development
• Learning to better connect with the five senses through things like sensory integration

In speech and language therapy, your child may work on:

• Loosening the muscles in and around their face with treatments like kinesio taping® and myofascial release
• Activating and strengthening muscles in and around the face through things like VitalStim therapy and biofeedback
• Learning sounds through fluency therapy or voice therapy

Our highly trained rehabilitation medicine team cares for children being treated as inpatients by evaluating their needs before they leave the hospital. We also see children regularly for scheduled outpatient visits. Our physiatrists work closely with you to develop your child’s rehabilitation medicine care plan with your family’s needs in mind.

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is the difference between pediatric physiatrists and pediatric therapists?

  Pediatric physiatrists help treat issues that span a wide spectrum of health conditions, ranging from stroke recovery to injury prevention for athletes. Our physiatrists will prescribe your child’s therapy plan and any associated equipment they may need. Our physical, speech, occupational and psychological therapists will select the individual activities, procedures and methods to meet the goals in your child’s physiatrist’s care plan.

• Do physiatrists have MDs or DO degrees?

  Yes. They must also have special certifications in rehabilitation medicine. Our physiatrists are also specialized in pediatric rehabilitative medicine. Some physiatrists are also pediatricians.

• What is the difference between rehabilitation medicine and palliative care?

  Palliative care offers management strategies for symptoms that cause discomfort. We work closely with palliative care, but rehabilitative medicine focuses more on helping your child develop skills to move through the world with greater ease and independence.