Down Syndrome Treatment

Why Kid’s Creek for Down Syndrome Treatment?

You have many decisions to make in the treatment and care for your child with Down syndrome. Your choice in therapy interventions is one of those important decisions. Our staff at Kid’s Creek Therapy made a decision years ago to focus on particular areas of treatment, including Down syndrome, and to advance our knowledge and treatment methods in these focus areas. At Kid’s Creek Therapy, your child will be treated by therapists who have received additional training and education specifically for Down syndrome.

What Can My Child With Down Syndrome Achieve?

With a comprehensive Down syndrome treatment plan, active family support and encouragement, your child can learn important skills and achieve results. We believe your child has the potential to learn to walk, talk, make friends, and function successfully in school. We are here to help you achieve results for your child.

Physical Therapy Treatment for Down Syndrome

Children with Down syndrome want to do the same things all children want to do: sit, crawl, walk, explore their environment, play and interact with the people around them. To do so, they must develop their gross motor skills. Physical therapy treatment focuses on gross motor development. Since most children with Down syndrome have low muscle tone, the goal of physical therapy is to teach children with Down syndrome to move their bodies in appropriate ways, and to improve their muscle tone.

Pediatric physical therapy treatment facilitates the development of optimal movement patterns. Working with their muscles and movements will help children reach many of their motor milestones and will assist them in achieving good posture, proper foot alignment, an efficient walking pattern, and a good physical foundation for exercise throughout life. Our physical therapists are highly trained in developing successful treatment programs for children with Down syndrome.

Speech Therapy Treatment for Down Syndrome

Speech therapy is important for children with Down syndrome. Because they often have small mouths and slightly enlarged tongues, they can have articulation problems (difficulty speaking clearly), feeding difficulties, and mouth posturing problems. Speaking/articulation problems can be compounded by hearing problems. A speech therapist will work with your child to help him/her learn to communicate clearly and functionally. Other areas addressed in speech therapy include receptive and expressive language, semantics (vocabulary), syntax (grammar), pragmatics (uses of language, social and conversational skills), and classroom/social language skills.

At Kid’s Creek Therapy, our speech-language pathologists (SLPs) have understanding and expertise to help address the speech and language problems faced by many children with Down syndrome. Our SLPs have undergone additional training to specifically meet the needs of children with Down syndrome in the areas of: oral placement/oral motor planning, oral motor strengthening, and myofunctional therapy (including feeding/swallowing skills). Our trainings and treatment methods include: PROMPT, Sara Rosenfeld Johnson techniques (Talk Tools), and Beckman Oral Motor.

Occupational Therapy Treatment for Down Syndrome

Occupational therapists (OT) help facilitate the development of fine motor skills. OTs work with the child to promote arm and hand movements that lay the foundation for later developing fine motor skills.

Fine motor skills focus on developing the movements in their hands that will allow them to do many things as they get older, but many children need therapy treatment to ensure that these movements develop appropriately. In occupational therapy treatment, children do this through play. They open and close things, pick up and release toys, stack and build, manipulate knobs and buttons, experiment with crayons, etc. Your child may face more challenges learning fine motor skills because of low muscle tone, decreased strength and joint ligament laxity. Our OTs are here to help.

Self-help skills and activities of daily living are another area of focus in occupational therapy. Our OTs are experts at breaking down skills so expectations are appropriate and results can be achieved. They can suggest positioning or adaptations that might help your child to be more independent. For example, a child may have more success feeding herself with a particular type of spoon and dish or using a particular grip on a writing tool. Independence in self-help skills such as dressing and feeding are encouraged.

Other fine motor skills development focuses on helping the child to achieve success in the classroom. Whether they are learning printing, handwriting, keyboarding, cutting, etc., our goal is for your child to participate in the school environment successfully. All of our therapists are happy to work with families and teachers to design and implement an effective school, home, and community program to help children develop to their full potential.