Why Choose Home Based Physical Therapy for your child?
There are many reasons why your baby or child will benefit from physical therapy at home rather than at an offsite clinic.
Convenience: By bringing the clinic to you, I save parents the hassle of packing everyone, often including siblings, into the car and traveling to an offsite clinic. If you’re a parent, you know how difficult just leaving the house can be on a good day...forget about a cold, rainy or snowy day!
Your home is your child’s natural environment: Early Intervention services are most effective when relying on routines, materials and people familiar to the family and child. Your home is a safe place where the child is most comfortable which makes it the ideal environment to evaluate and treat him. Observing a child in his home allows a therapist to make the necessary changes to the home environment to set him up for success. For example, if a baby with motor delay is spending most of his time in an exersaucer or bouncy seat (this is not ideal), this may not be conveyed to a therapist in the clinic but will be observed at home. Or if a baby with Torticollis is positioned at the dinner table so they are looking toward their favored side, adjustments can be made on the spot.
Flexibility to see child in their other natural environments: A child’s natural environment is not limited to the home. Other examples are the playground, classroom, or baby gym class. These are all places I’ve worked with children over the years and have found it extremely beneficial. The flexibility of in home visits allows the therapist to help children achieve their goals throughout their community.
Improved Carry Over: I find that parents have a much easier time carrying over activities when they are in their own home with their own “stuff”. By utilizing items from the home during sessions (stools, toys, pillows, furniture, etc), I save families the effort of trying to replicate activities from the clinic equipment to the home. For example, it's easy to carry over an obstacle course that you’ve seen in your own playroom with your own toys or work on climbing skills on your own backyard playset.
Hygiene: Bringing your child to an outpatient pediatric clinic is unnecessarily exposing them to the germs of other toddlers and children at the clinic. Certainly for newborns, this poses an unnecessary risk to their health.
As you can see, children receive many benefits when receiving physical therapy services in their home environment. Working on motor skills in the environment that children spend most of their time makes these tasks functional and easier to carry over into daily routines. It is worth noting that there are indications for pediatric therapy at an offsite clinic. In my experience, the needs of most children can be met in their home with very little equipment (I typically have each family purchase a large therapy ball in addition to my jumbo “bag of tricks”). While the bells and whistles of a clinic may seem necessary, they typically are not. Perhaps when a child is older, around school age, the equipment at a clinic can be helpful, but there is absolutely no need for equipment when working with a baby . In addition, if a child has significant sensory processing issues, the suspended equipment at a clinic can be beneficial. I have access to a clinic when necessary and have only used it 1 or 2 times over the past 5 years working in Westchester. With my knowledge of gross motor development and lots of creativity, your home is the perfect place for me to help your child reach her maximum potential! If you know a child that can benefit from physical therapy, and lives in Westchester County, please call (917) 584-3468 and I will be happy to help answer any questions. If you’ve found this article helpful, please go to my website and join my mailing list to receive future articles. Darcy Froehlich, PT, C/NDT
