Developmental Physiotherapy
Developmental physiotherapy generally refers to physiotherapy that is targeted towards the first year of life. It encompasses skills such as rolling, crawling, standing and walking. Children who are delayed with these skills often benefit from an assessment with a Paediatric Physiotherapist to assess for the cause of the delay.
There are varying perspectives as to whether it is necessary for a particular milestone to be achieved. Many professionals will advise it is very important and others will disagree. This is especially true for whether children are required to crawl. Navigating the conflicting information can be tricky, and can leave parents vulnerable to misinformation.
Canberra Children’s Physiotherapy is of the stance that children do not necessarily need to achieve every milestone, however, if a gross motor milestone is missing or delayed, there should be a reason why.
For example, children who don’t roll may have tightness through their neck or oblique muscles and similarly children who don’t crawl can have weakness through their abdominal or arm muscles. The delay in the milestone can be the first sign that something isn’t quite right, and can be seen as a prompt to get an assessment.
Sometimes, by the time the delay has been observed, children may have passed that specific milestone and be onto the next. This is most commonly seen at Canberra Children’s Physiotherapy in relation to crawling. By the time the delay is observed and assessed children are 10-12 months of age and the child is already standing and has little interest in crawling. When this occurs, we don’t think its necessary to get a child crawling, however we do think it’s necessary to identify what caused the delay and treat the tightness/weakness that is responsible. Often, this means increasing muscle strength, decreasing tightness in muscles or teaching a kiddo a more efficient movement technique.
Delays in gross motor milestones can also sometimes indicate that something else might be underlying that is important to be assessed. We have linked our favorite guide to Red Flags in Children that was published by Queensland Health: https://www.childrens.health.qld.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/PDF/red-flags.pdf
We are very passionate about educating families and providing the most up-to-date care. We love to work collaboratively with other professions, including Medical Professionals, Occupational Therapists, Speech Therapists and Osteopaths. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions!
