Some children and adolescents have difficulties developing certain skills and mastering tasks at the same rate as their peers. This can be very frustrating and take its toll on the individual’s self esteem (especially at school). We use an integrated multidisciplinary approach to help your child develop the skills they require to achieve and develop their independence.
“Milestones” is a term used to describe the developmental progress of a baby/child – for example, rolling over, crawling, pulling up to stand, walking and talking are all milestones. While all children develop at different rates, there are certain indicators that a child who is not reaching their milestones may be experiencing developmental delay. There may be underlying medical conditions causing this delay, or a child may simply be a little slower than their peers. Physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy are key in helping a child progress towards their milestones, and the therapists here at Spring Forward Family Centre are also able to help refer on for further medical investigations if required.
Have you ever wondered why your child seems to be the only one not crawling? Or has taken a long time to be able to sit independently? Gross motor skills are those that involve the larger movements such as moving arms and legs and make activities such as crawling, running and jumping possible. Some children take longer than others to develop these skills. At Spring Forward, we utilise our range of therapists to create the most effective plan to improve your child’s gross motor skills through a range of fun games and activities.
We’ve all had issues colouring in between the lines at some point in our lives. But sometimes children find it very difficult to hold a pencil appropriately or write accurately. These children become very frustrated and it can impact their social life at school because they are embarrassed or appear to be the ‘naughty kid’ because they are disobedient for simply trying to avoid doing the difficult activity of writing practice. Handwriting is a fine motor skill of the hand, and some children may also struggle with other fine motor skills such as navigating buttons, tying shoelaces, using scissors, or become fatigued easily from such tasks.
At Spring Forward we can help to improve this (and other) fine motor skill problems from an early age. We aim to enable their independence and help these children flourish in their classrooms as they can now participate in the activities they were once embarrassed or scared of doing.
Does your child seem to have less body control than others? Have you always been one of those people that have struggled with balance? Or do you have a sore back that seems to occur for no reason? Weak core muscle may be a contributing factor.
Looking at the kids in the picture to the right, you’ll notice that one child is hanging as though gravity is pulling them fast towards the ground, while the other kid is able to bend his knees and move his head to see where he wants to go next – he has a core that is working properly, while the other child’s isn’t! Look even closer – see how the tendons in the child on the right’s wrists are sticking out, while the child on the left’s aren’t working anywhere near as hard? This is what happens when our cores aren’t working properly – we have to use the wrong muscles to try to achieve our goals, leading to secondary problems throughout life.
When they work properly, your core muscles work to support and stabilize your spine, help you work more energy efficiently and also control your balance. If your core muscles are weak you may feel off-balance often – particularly during complex movements, like sporting activities – or you may experience back pain.
At Spring Forward we aim to improve core strength to assist with functional balance. We also identify any other causes of the weakness and design a program to build up strength and alleviate any associated pain, with the objective to improve long-term quality of life and prevent future problems.