Pediatric Therapy Center

Inpatient Services

The UMC Children’s Hospital provides physical, occupational and speech therapy, direct inpatient care to patients ranging from newborns to young adults. While some patients are treated at bedside, The Pediatric Therapy Room provides a safe, child-friendly therapeutic environment to evaluate and treat patients, as well as educate the patient and the family.

PHYSICAL THERAPISTS (PTs)
Physical Therapists (PTs) work with children to develop, restore or maintain functional movement limited by pain, injury, disease or other environmental factors. They specialize in:

  • Gait analysis
  • Balance problems
  • Pain management
  • Muscle weakness
  • Movement disorders
  • Biomechanics and orthotic management
  • Wheelchair and bed positioning
  • Alternative seating

SPEECH PATHOLOGISTS (STs)
Speech Pathologists work with infants, toddlers, preschoolers and school-age children to support optimal outcomes, by supporting their speech, language, cognition and feeding development. They specialize in:

  • Feeding and swallowing disorders
  • Speech/language delay
  • Early cognitive and developmental delay
  • Voice disorders
  • Augmentative devices for communication impairments

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPISTS (OTs)
Occupational Therapists focus on promoting functional independence for children in order to assume or return to their "roles in life," their "occupations" as infants, students, sons and daughters. Through meaningful activity and play, OT facilitates the promotion of age-appropriate skills and development. They specialize in:

  • Self care skills for feeding, dressing, bathing, hygiene and grooming
  • Adaptive equipment for self-care
  • Fine motor skills such as hand use, coordination, scissor cutting, and writing
  • Visual perceptual skills needed for recognizing and sorting shapes
  • Pre-school and school skills such as following directions, problem solving
  • Sensory integration affecting behavior, feeding, oral skills, defensiveness, and alertness
  • Seating evaluations for bath, push and travel chairs developmental assessments and treatment
  • Custom splint fabrication

Team Approach

Pediatric Therapists work together with physicians, nurses, parents, case managers, social workers and allied staff to provide the best possible care to each patient. When a patient is ready to go home, the therapists work with in-house staff, rehabilitation professionals in the community and the families to facilitate a smooth transition.

Our Patients

Referral while in the hospital is for children who are:

  • Recovering from surgery
  • Receiving care for a traumatic injury or illness
  • Undergoing treatment related to acute, chronic or complex medical conditions