Pediatric physical therapy exercises are essential for building strength, improving coordination, and supporting overall physical development in children. Whether your child is recovering from an injury, dealing with a neuromuscular condition, or simply looking to stay active, these exercises can make a big difference in their progress.
Support your child’s journey with pediatric physical therapy in Brooklyn through home exercises tailored to their needs. 💪
Simple Pediatric Physical Therapy Exercises for Home Practice
Pediatric physical therapy exercises are essential for improving a child’s mobility, reducing pain, and aiding in recovery after injury or surgery. The key to successful therapy at home is making the exercises fun and engaging for children.
Exercises at home
1. Animal Walk
What You Need: Tape
What This Works On: Balance, core muscles, limb, and abdominal strengthening
How to Play:
This exercise turns walking into a fun, imaginative activity. Start by placing two pieces of tape about 10 to 20 feet apart on the floor. The goal is for the child to walk from one piece of tape to the other. The catch? They must walk like the animal you call out! Whether they’re hopping like a frog or stomping like a dinosaur, this game engages their imagination and works on core and muscle strength.
2. Tightrope Walk
What You Need: Tape
What This Works On: Balance, core, and leg muscles
How to Play:
Lay down a piece of tape in a straight line on the floor, creating a “tightrope” for the child to walk across. Have the child balance carefully as they walk along the tape, pretending it’s a real tightrope. Encourage them to spread their arms for balance or hold a prop to mimic a real tightrope walk. This exercise is great for building core strength and improving balance.
3. Simon Says
What You Need: Another person
What This Works On: Full body coordination, muscle engagement
How to Play:
“Simon Says” is a simple but effective game that can target multiple muscle groups. The leader, whether it’s the parent or the child, calls out various movements, such as hopping on one foot, touching their toes, or spinning in circles. The catch? The child can only perform the action if “Simon says” so! This game helps children practice coordination and engage different muscle groups in a fun and interactive way.
4. Stuffed Animal Elevator Rides
What You Need: Stuffed animals and an empty tote
What This Works On: Core strengthening
How to Play:
Place several stuffed animals on the floor and an empty tote nearby. The challenge is for the child to pick up each stuffed animal with their feet, lift it, and drop it into the tote. This exercise focuses on strengthening the core muscles, as the child has to engage their abdominal muscles to lift and control their legs during the activity.
5. Floor Ice Skating
What You Need: Two paper plates
What This Works On: Core muscles, leg strength, balance
How to Play:
This exercise involves “ice skating” around the room using paper plates as skates. Have the child place a foot on each paper plate and slide around the floor. This works best on a smooth surface without carpeting. As the child glides across the room, they engage their core muscles for stability and their leg muscles for movement, improving both strength and balance.
Pediatric Sports Physical Therapy: Exercises for Young Athletes
Not all physical therapists are trained in pediatric sports medicine, so it’s essential to find a therapist who understands the impact of training on developing bodies. A therapist experienced in this field will know how to manage and prevent sports injuries in young athletes, ensuring they maintain optimal health throughout their athletic careers.
Sports Therapy for Teens: A Comprehensive Approach
Athletes of all ages benefit from a support system that includes family, teammates, and coaches. However, young athletes, in particular, can gain from having a sports physical therapist as part of their support team. A physical therapist trained in pediatric sports medicine can teach young athletes healthy habits that go beyond injury recovery, emphasizing long-term health and enhanced athletic performance.
Common Areas Addressed in Pediatric Sports Physical Therapy
- Muscle Sprains and Strains: Young athletes often experience muscle injuries due to the physical demands of sports. A physical therapist will assess the severity of the injury and create a rehabilitation plan to promote healing and prevent future strains.
- Overuse Injuries and Prevention: Overuse injuries are common in youth sports, especially when an athlete repeatedly uses the same muscle groups. Physical therapists help treat these injuries while offering training tips to reduce the risk of recurrence.
- Post-Fracture and Post-Surgery Rehab: If a young athlete suffers from a fracture or undergoes surgery, physical therapy helps them regain strength and flexibility. This rehabilitation process is essential to ensure a smooth transition back into sports.
- Core Strengthening: Strong core muscles are crucial for balance, stability, and injury prevention. Core exercises improve athletic performance and can significantly reduce the risk of injuries, particularly in sports requiring sudden movements or heavy lifting.
- Addressing Weakness and Flexibility: Any areas of weakness or reduced flexibility can elevate the risk of injury or impair an athlete’s performance. Physical therapists identify these areas and create exercises to target them, improving the athlete’s overall strength and agility.
- Off-Season Training and Wellness Screening: Between seasons, it’s essential for athletes to maintain fitness. Sports physical therapists can provide wellness screenings and sport-specific or general training programs to keep young athletes in shape and prepared for their next season.
- Agility, Balance, and Coordination: These fundamental skills are crucial for most sports. Therapists often incorporate agility drills, balance exercises, and coordination activities to improve performance and help athletes stay injury-free.
- Concussion Management and Rehabilitation: Concussions are a serious risk in many contact sports. Physical therapists help manage and treat concussions, using tests like ImPACT (Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing) to monitor recovery. They also provide rehabilitation exercises to safely return athletes to play.
- Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy: For young athletes, particularly female athletes, stress urinary incontinence can sometimes occur. Pelvic floor physical therapy helps strengthen the muscles in this area, allowing athletes to manage or overcome this condition and improve their performance.
Exercises for Young Athletes
1. Single-Leg Balance
- What It Does: Improves balance and coordination.
- How to Do It: Stand on one leg for 30 seconds, keeping the body stable. Switch to the other leg. As athletes progress, they can add slight movements or close their eyes to make the exercise more challenging.
2. Planks
- What It Does: Strengthens the core muscles, which helps with stability.
- How to Do It: Hold the body in a straight line from head to toe, propped on forearms and toes, for 30-60 seconds. Focus on keeping the core tight and the body aligned.
3. Squats
- What It Does: Builds leg strength and improves flexibility.
- How to Do It: With feet shoulder-width apart, lower the body into a squat position, keeping the knees aligned with the toes. Perform 10-15 repetitions.
4. Lunges
- What It Does: Strengthens the legs and improves coordination.
- How to Do It: Step forward with one leg and lower the hips until both knees are at a 90-degree angle. Switch legs and repeat 10-15 times per leg.
5. Agility Ladder Drills
- What It Does: Enhances footwork, balance, and agility.
- How to Do It: Use an agility ladder and perform various footwork drills, such as side steps or hopping through the ladder’s squares, to improve quickness and coordination.
6. Jumping Jacks
- What It Does: Improves cardiovascular endurance and coordination.
- How to Do It: Jump with legs spreading apart and arms going overhead, then return to the starting position. Perform 20-30 repetitions.
7. Hamstring Stretch
- What It Does: Increases flexibility in the hamstrings, reducing the risk of injury.
- How to Do It: Sit on the floor with one leg extended and the other bent inward. Reach toward the toes of the extended leg and hold for 20-30 seconds, then switch legs.
How Pediatric Physical Therapy Exercises Help Improve Coordination
For children with developmental delays, motor dysfunctions, or neurological conditions that affect movement, these exercises are vital in enhancing their ability to perform everyday activities, such as walking, running, and jumping. The key is to target and develop foundational movement patterns, allowing them to gain control and confidence in their movements.
Strengthening Core Muscles
A significant factor behind coordination issues is weak core muscles. The core acts as the foundation for nearly all physical movement, so strengthening it improves stability and balance. In pediatric physical therapy, exercises such as balance activities, planks, and seated core exercises are commonly used. These activities build strength in the muscles surrounding the spine, helping children maintain better posture and control their movements more effectively.
By strengthening the core, children become more stable, which directly impacts their coordination, enabling them to run, climb, or perform other dynamic activities with greater ease and control.
Enhancing Balance and Stability
Balance is an essential component of coordination. In many cases, poor balance can lead to difficulty with fluid, controlled movement. Physical therapists work with children to improve their balance using exercises like standing on one leg, walking on a balance beam, or using balance balls. These activities challenge the child’s equilibrium, teaching them how to stabilize themselves in various situations.
As children enhance their balance, they also gain better control over their limbs and body movements. This improvement leads to more fluidity in daily tasks such as walking, running, or playing sports, making activities feel more natural and coordinated.
Fine Motor Skill Development
Physical therapy doesn’t just focus on gross motor movements but also fine motor skills, which involve smaller, more precise movements such as gripping objects, writing, or manipulating toys. By working on tasks like picking up small items, stacking blocks, or using tools, therapists help children improve their hand-eye coordination and fine motor control.
These fine motor skills are essential for everyday tasks such as dressing, buttoning clothes, eating, or even playing musical instruments. Improving these skills enables children to perform these actions more efficiently and with greater independence.
Promoting Bilateral Coordination
Bilateral coordination refers to the ability to use both sides of the body in a synchronized manner. This skill is critical for many daily activities, such as tying shoelaces, cutting with scissors, or catching and throwing a ball. Pediatric physical therapy includes exercises like ball games, bike riding, and activities that require crossing the midline of the body (such as reaching across to pick up an object).
These activities help children practice coordinating both sides of their body together, which strengthens their overall movement patterns and increases their ability to perform complex tasks requiring the cooperation of both hands or legs.
Repetition and Neuroplasticity
A core principle in pediatric physical therapy is repetition. By repeating specific movements and exercises, children develop better coordination through the concept of neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s ability to form and strengthen new neural pathways in response to repeated practice.
As children practice coordinated movements, they reinforce the neural circuits responsible for these actions, leading to improved control and smoother, more natural movements over time. This process is particularly important for children who face motor challenges, as it helps them refine their skills and integrate them into daily life.
Sensory Integration
Some children with coordination difficulties may also struggle with sensory processing challenges, making it difficult for them to respond to their environment effectively. In these cases, pediatric physical therapists use sensory integration techniques, which may involve introducing various sensory stimuli such as textured surfaces or different environmental inputs like sound or light.
These sensory activities teach children how to process and react to sensory input more effectively, ultimately helping them coordinate their movements in response to the world around them. By improving sensory integration, children can gain greater control over their body and movements in different situations.
Physical Therapy Pediatric Exercises for Strength and Flexibility
Pediatric physical therapy is essential for helping children develop strength, flexibility, and motor skills. These exercises are especially vital for children with developmental delays, muscle imbalances, or specific conditions like cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy.
1. Core Strengthening Exercises
Strengthening the core muscles is crucial for improving posture, balance, and control over body movements. Pediatric core exercises focus on developing the abdominal, lower back, and pelvic muscles, which are foundational for overall body strength.
Bridging
- How it works: The child lies on their back with knees bent and feet flat on the floor. They lift their hips toward the ceiling while squeezing their glutes.
- Benefits: This exercise strengthens the lower back, hips, and glutes, improving core stability and posture.
Planks
- How it works: For older children, holding a plank position (forearms on the ground and body in a straight line) engages the core muscles.
- Benefits: Planks enhance abdominal and back strength, promoting endurance and core stability.
Superman Pose
- How it works: The child lies face down on their stomach and lifts both arms and legs off the floor simultaneously, holding the position briefly.
- Benefits: This exercise targets the lower back and helps improve muscle control and balance.
2. Lower Body Strengthening
Strong leg muscles are critical for walking, running, jumping, and overall mobility. Lower body exercises focus on strengthening the quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes.
Squats
- How it works: The child bends their knees and lowers their body as if sitting in a chair, keeping their back straight and chest lifted.
- Benefits: Squats develop strength in the quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes, enhancing stability and power in the legs.
Lunges
- How it works: The child steps forward with one foot and lowers their back knee toward the ground, keeping the front knee aligned over the ankle.
- Benefits: Lunges help build leg strength and improve balance, with variations like dynamic lunges adding an extra challenge.
Step-Ups
- How it works: The child steps onto an elevated surface, such as a box or step, then steps down, alternating legs.
- Benefits: This exercise engages the hip and leg muscles, promoting strength and improving balance.
3. Upper Body Strengthening
Upper body strength is important for tasks like pushing, pulling, and lifting. These exercises are tailored to improve the strength of the arms, shoulders, and chest.
Wall Push-ups
- How it works: The child stands a few feet away from a wall and performs push-ups by pressing their hands against the wall and bending their elbows.
- Benefits: Wall push-ups are a gentler alternative to traditional push-ups, strengthening the chest, shoulders, and arms.
Animal Walks
- How it works: Fun activities like bear walks (walking on hands and feet with hips raised) and crab walks (walking on hands and feet with belly facing up) engage the upper body.
- Benefits: These playful exercises improve arm, shoulder, and core strength, keeping the child entertained while building muscle.
4. Flexibility Exercises
Flexibility exercises ensure that muscles and joints maintain their full range of motion. Pediatric flexibility exercises help children stay limber and prevent stiffness.
Hamstring Stretch
- How it works: While sitting on the floor with legs extended, the child reaches forward to touch their toes or as far as possible.
- Benefits: This exercise stretches the hamstrings, improving flexibility and mobility in the legs.
Calf Stretch
- How it works: The child places one foot in front of the other and leans forward while keeping the back leg straight to stretch the calf muscles.
- Benefits: Calf stretches improve flexibility in the lower legs, aiding in activities like running and jumping.
Shoulder Stretch
- How it works: The child holds one arm across their body and uses the other arm to gently pull it closer, stretching the shoulder muscles.
- Benefits: This helps maintain shoulder flexibility, important for upper body movements and activities like throwing.
5. Balance and Coordination
Improving balance and coordination is key to developing motor skills. Activities that challenge balance help children gain better control over their movements.
Standing on One Leg
- How it works: The child practices standing on one leg for increasing durations, starting with short periods and progressing over time.
- Benefits: This simple exercise strengthens the legs and enhances balance, preparing the child for more complex movements.
Balance Board or Beam
- How it works: The child walks on a balance beam or practices balancing on a board, challenging their stability.
- Benefits: These exercises build core strength and improve coordination, crucial for many physical activities.
Engaging Games
Incorporating games like “Simon Says” or obstacle courses adds an element of fun to balance exercises, keeping the child motivated while working on coordination.
Pediatric Physical Therapy Exercises for Neuromuscular Conditions
Pediatric physical therapy (PT) is essential for children with neuromuscular conditions such as cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and spina bifida. These conditions affect the muscles and nervous system, often leading to impaired movement, muscle weakness, and coordination challenges.
Key Exercises for Neuromuscular Conditions
1. Stretching Exercises
Stretching plays a crucial role in maintaining or improving the range of motion in children with muscle tightness or spasticity. Children with neuromuscular conditions may experience stiffness in their muscles, which can lead to contractures (shortening of muscles or tendons).
- Passive Stretching: This involves the therapist or caregiver moving the child’s limbs to stretch specific muscles. It helps prevent stiffness and contractures, especially in children who cannot perform active movements themselves.
- Active Stretching: Involves the child actively stretching their muscles, improving flexibility and helping with daily movements. Physical therapists often recommend daily stretching routines, targeting areas such as the legs, arms, or back, depending on the child’s needs.
2. Strengthening Exercises
Children with neuromuscular conditions often have reduced muscle strength. Strengthening exercises are vital for building muscle power and improving functional abilities.
- Weight-Bearing Activities: These exercises involve having the child support their own body weight, such as standing or pushing against resistance. Weight-bearing helps strengthen muscles and bones.
- Resistance Exercises: Therapists use resistance bands or the child’s own body weight to improve muscle strength. Activities like seated leg lifts or arm presses can enhance strength in specific muscle groups.
- Functional Strengthening: Exercises that mimic everyday activities, such as walking or stair climbing, are incorporated into therapy to help the child develop the muscle strength needed for independence in daily life.
3. Balance and Coordination Training
Neuromuscular conditions often lead to balance and coordination challenges, making it harder for children to perform basic tasks like standing or walking. Balance and coordination exercises aim to improve postural control and equilibrium.
- Standing on One Foot: This exercise improves balance by challenging the child to maintain stability on one leg.
- Walking on a Balance Beam: A fun activity that strengthens both balance and coordination while engaging the child in an enjoyable task.
- Therapy Ball Exercises: Using a large therapy ball for seated exercises can help children develop core strength and better balance.
4. Gait Training
For children who have difficulty walking, gait training focuses on improving walking patterns and mobility. This training often involves assistive devices like walkers or orthotic supports to ensure proper alignment and movement.
- Assisted Walking: Therapists may use devices to support the child as they practice walking, encouraging better posture and movement.
- Treadmill Walking: Under therapist supervision, treadmill walking can help improve the child’s walking endurance and gait.
5. Aquatic Therapy
Aquatic therapy is highly beneficial for children with neuromuscular conditions. The buoyancy of water reduces strain on joints and muscles, allowing for more freedom of movement while still providing resistance to build strength.
- Water-Based Exercises: Activities like walking in water, leg lifts, and arm movements help improve muscle strength, balance, and cardiovascular endurance in a low-impact environment.
6. Functional Mobility Exercises
Functional mobility exercises focus on improving everyday tasks such as sitting, standing, or moving between positions. These exercises aim to increase a child’s ability to perform essential movements independently.
- Sit-to-Stand Transitions: Helping the child practice getting from a seated position to standing builds leg strength and promotes independence.
- Bed Mobility Exercises: These exercises teach children how to roll or shift positions in bed, improving overall mobility and comfort.
7. Therapeutic Play
Therapeutic play incorporates play-based exercises that engage children in fun activities while improving their physical abilities. Play is an essential part of pediatric therapy as it keeps the child engaged and motivated.
- Obstacle Courses: Crawling through obstacle courses helps improve strength, coordination, and motor skills.
- Throwing and Catching Games: These activities enhance hand-eye coordination and upper body strength.
- Large Therapy Balls: Playing with therapy balls can help children develop core strength, balance, and motor control in a playful way.
Importance of Early Intervention
Early intervention is critical for children with neuromuscular conditions. The sooner therapy begins, the better the chances of preventing secondary complications such as joint deformities, muscle atrophy, and respiratory issues. Pediatric physical therapists work closely with families to create individualized therapy plans that address the unique needs of each child. Early and consistent therapy helps children improve their physical and functional development, ensuring a better quality of life and greater independence.
Sources.
Rock Valley Physical Therapy: (2024, February 23). 10 pediatric physical therapy exercises & activities. Rock Valley Physical Therapy. https://www.rockvalleypt.com/10-pediatric-physical-therapy-exercises-activities/
Integral Physical Therapy: (n.d.). Pediatric sports medicine and sports physical therapy. Integral Physical Therapy. https://myintegralpt.com/services/pediatric-sports-medicine-and-sports-physical-therapy/
Murphy, N. A., & Carbone: (2008). Promoting the Participation of Children with Disabilities in Sports, Recreation, and Physical Activities. Pediatrics https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/121/5/1057/73486/
PT Solutions: (n.d.). Common pediatric physical therapy exercises that build strength. PT Solutions Physical Therapy. https://ptsolutions.com/blog/common-pediatric-physical-therapy-exercises-that-build-strength/
First Response Healthcare: (n.d.). Enhancing balance and coordination in children through pediatric physiotherapy. https://firstresponsehealthcare.com/blog/enhancing-balance-and-coordination-in-children-through-pediatric-physiotherapy