Infirmary Health’s Pediatric Rehabilitation Department provides comprehensive
care to children who require occupational, physical and speech therapy.
Located at Thomas Hospital, and North Baldwin Infirmary, we offer an environment
where all three therapies can work together with families to guarantee
each child is receiving exactly what he or she needs.
All children seen in the Pediatric Rehabilitation Department are referred
by a physician. If you are concerned about any aspect of your child’s
development, talk to your physician. He or she can answer questions, suggest
options and refer you for therapy that will benefit your child.
Our pediatric therapists are trained to treat children with:
Autism
Muscular Dystrophy
Cerebral Palsy
Sensory Issues
Feeding Difficulties
Difficulty Talking
The pediatric rehabilitation clinic at Infirmary Health brings state-of-the-art
technology and equipment to the Mobile Bay area. Our therapists are highly
skilled in their respective fields, and therefore able to provide the
highest quality therapy to their patients. Some of the specialized treatment
modalities include:
Vital-Stim neuro-muscular electrical stimulation for dysphagia
Augmentative/alternative communication training and support
iPad applications
Lite Gait
Braces, AFOs or splinting
Speech Therapy
Our speech-language pathologists provide evaluation and treatment for children
of all ages who have difficulties with communication and/or swallowing.
There are many different areas of communication in which a child may have
difficulty, such as articulation, motor planning, auditory processing,
comprehension, language expression, social communication, fluency or voice.
In addition, children may have difficulty swallowing foods and/or liquids
because of reflux, muscle weakness, coordination (motor planning) or multiple
medical complications. Articulation is the way a person pronounces sounds
and connects them together to form words.
Occupational Therapy
Occupational therapy can help improve a child’s cognitive, physical
and motor skills while enhancing self-esteem and sense of accomplishment.
The occupational therapists work with children to strengthen their development
and growth abilities through structured, therapeutic play activities.
This may include self-care skills, leisure or play activities and daily
work at home and school.
Occupational therapists strive to help children organize their senses to
aid in maintaining an overall calm state and good attention span. A child
may need to work on coordination, balance or planning bodily movements
in relation to their environment so that they can learn to accomplish
some of the everyday tasks such as dressing or playing on a playground.
Our occupational therapists will use their training and expertise combined
with state-of-the-art technology to design a therapy program to meet your
child’s individual needs.
Physical Therapy
Pediatric physical therapy involves treating children who have health-related
conditions, illnesses or injuries that limit their abilities to move and
perform functional activities such as sitting, walking and riding a bike.
This may be due to challenges with which a child was born or challenges
resulting from an injury or illness. The pediatric physical therapy staff
will work to improve movement and function in patients through structured
play involving caregivers and family members.
Pediatric Aquatic Therapy
Aquatic therapy services are offered at Thomas Fitness Center and North
Baldwin Fitness Center in a temperature-regulated pool. This unique resource
is utilized by physical therapists and occupational therapists to help
a child use his extremities without the effects of gravity. Benefits of
aquatic therapy include:
Relaxed tone due to warm water
Increased blood flow
Increased flexibility
Decreased swelling due to hydrostatic pressure
Increased body awareness
Decreased sensitivity to touch
Strengthening using the resistance of the water
Decreased body weight to allow less stress on joints
What is child development?
Child development refers to how a child becomes able to do more complex
things as they get older. Development is different than growth. Growth
only refers to the child getting bigger in size. If you are concerned
about your child’s development, please see consult your pediatrician.
When we talk about normal development, we are talking about developing
skills like:
Gross motor: using large groups of muscles to sit, stand, walk, run, etc., keeping
balance, and changing positions.
Fine motor: using hands to be able to eat, draw, dress, play, write and do many other things.
Language: speaking, using body language and gestures, communicating, and understanding
what others say.
Cognitive: Thinking skills: including learning, understanding, problem-solving, reasoning,
and remembering.
Social: Interacting with others, having relationships with family, friends, and
teachers, cooperating, and responding to the feelings of others.
What are developmental milestones?
Developmental milestones are a set of functional skills or age-specific
tasks that most children can do at a certain age range. Your pediatrician
uses milestones to help check how your child is developing. Although each
milestone has an age level, the actual age when a normally developing
child reaches that milestone can vary quite a bit. Every child is unique!
Click here to view our developmental milestones chart.
Each area of Pediatric Rehabilitation requires a physician’s referral.
Once a referral is received, we will contact you to schedule an appointment
with a therapist. Evaluation of your child will occur during your first
visit and will include assessment tools specific to each type of rehabilitation.
The therapist will spend time getting to know you and your child, and
will be able to discuss recommendations for follow-up beyond your first session.
Treatment sessions are scheduled following your initial visit. Therapy
sessions are available Monday through Friday. We will make every effort
to schedule your treatment times around your school or work schedule.
Family involvement is an essential part of the therapy process. We encourage
parents and family members to become part of the child’s therapy
by learning strategies that they can use in the home environment to aid
their child.
Continuing the treatment at home encourages positive change in a child’s
development and an ability to incorporate these skills into multiple environments
including home and school.
To schedule a tour of any of our facilities, contact our Pediatric Rehabilitation
department at
(251) 279-1640.
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