Hey GLB readers!
Today is a guest post from a good friend, past co-worker and passionate pediatric PT who has written a BOOK for you (plus she’s giving us 20% off!) Without further ado I will let you hear from Elizabeth:
If you have a baby or toddler, you have likely wondered if they are doing everything that they should be doing. How are you to know?
Even though we shouldn’t, as mothers we compare our kids to others who are learning things at different speeds. I would like to share with you a few things you can look for to know if you should do anything extra to help them “move along”.
I am a PT for kids and my favorite thing is helping to fix things people are worried about or struggling with!
I know that sounds broad, but I tend to try to do this with anything that I happen to have knowledge of, so here I am talking to you about development and milestones.
When you first realize that your baby or child is not doing something on a milestone chart that you found online, you may get very worried. The first step will most likely be to reach out to your pediatrician, who may or may not agree or they may not have a good picture of your baby to be able to decide right then.
If your pediatrician says, “Let’s wait and see” or “They should grow out of it”, it may cause feelings of frustration and fear because you feel there is something either minor or major that needs to be addressed. You may also feel stupid for bringing it up or start second guessing yourself. Please don’t doubt yourself, just find some more information!
If you decide to find another option, you may be confused about which professional to see?
A PT, OT, SLP, a teacher, a different kind of doctor altogether? What’s an early intervention specialist anyway? Here is an abbreviated guide:
PT
If the concern is with gross motor skills, movement disorders or restricted movement, such as tight muscles or joints, or post injury you should seek out a pediatric physical therapist.
OT
If the concern is with fine motor skills or sensory processing difficulty you would seek out a pediatric occupational therapist. Occupational Therapy (OT) focuses on activities that help children to develop the skills of everyday life like feeding and dressing which “occupy” a child’s day as well as their sensory integration of their environment. For a child, their work is their play as they develop their abilities to explore their world and do things independently.
SLP
If the concern is with nursing, latching, taking a bottle, eating, or speech production you would seek out a pediatric speech and language pathologist (SLP). Early on you can seek out a lactation specialist especially in the hospital and they can assist with basic latching techniques, but I am speaking if they seem to not be getting it even when you have tried all of their suggestions.
How Should Babies Move:
Babies move in all different ways, but what I am referring to is moving with symmetrical, smooth and fluid movements through space without any uncertainty, without stress or fear, and without excessive impulsiveness. Most babies will demonstrate impulsiveness, but can also demonstrate the knowledge of something they cannot safely do. This is an ever changing balance and beautiful to watch when it is typically developing.
If you are not sure if this is happening or are questioning it, this is when you should seek out help. It is never a stupid question and usually mothers’ intuition is on the right track!
Is there symmetry?
So, when I observe a baby for the first time, I look at how everything is moving together at whatever age and developmental level they are. So for example, if a baby is approximately 5 months old, a good position is on their tummy their weight to one side to free one arm and reaching up and forward for a toy. They may also fall or roll onto their back without startling and play with the toy they retrieved. They can then roll back onto their stomach and can also repeat this on the other side. Any stiff movements or not moving is something to investigate.
If they are not getting all the way over and they are just learning this skill it is not a cause for concern. There is a great deal of variability in HOW babies will learn this skill and others, but if you are seeing a consistent struggle or delay in learning new things or if they are not moving smoothly – then I would take a closer look.
- Do they reach with one arm every time?
- Do they only roll one direction?
- Is their head tilted one way?
- Do they crawl with one leg up or lagging behind?
These are all things that your baby should learn in their first year:
- Lifting and turning head both directions
- Rolling
- Reaching
- holding sitting when placed
- getting to sit
- achieving quadruped (crawling position, all 4’s)
- Creeping (means crawling in therapy terms)
- pulling to stand at crib or table
- cruising (walking while holding onto surface)
- standing independently
- walking
An area of fogginess that can affect all of these skills and others is the sensory processing systems. Our sensory system includes vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell, and balance. All of these areas consist of sensory receptor cells that take information in from the environment, pathways that transmit the info into the brain, and parts of the brain involved in processing the information and creating our sensory perception. As you can imagine any disruption in this process can cause difficulty moving or controlling our movements and therefore motor skills.
We all want our kids to run, jump, play sports or dance as much as they want to, and if something is off within this cycle all of these things can be challenging for them and cause frustration, being made fun of or low self esteem and quitting. Not every child is going to be an amazing athlete, but all of these areas can be worked on and improved to therefore lead to a happy and active life!
I really hope this helps some of you who may have been wondering these exact things!
If you would like some more info on this topic I have recently written an ebook with WAY more info, details and actual activities you can do in your own home. It is entitled
The Worry Free Guide to Meeting Motor Milestones and the link is below with a coupon code just for the readers of this Blog!
This book is going to give you an easy to understand, practical guide to follow that will spare you the wasted and frustrating time worrying what to do, whether you should do anything and, where to turn when the information you find online doesn’t apply to your child. Thank you for reading!
Sincerely,
Elizabeth, The Kid PT 🙂
My email is: elizabeth@abilifit.org
https://mailchi.mp/abilifit/worryfreeguide Enter code save20now to save 20% on your purchase!