What is it?
Children’s Physiotherapy involves the assessment, management and rehabilitation of babies, children and young people from birth to 19 years of age, or until school leaving age. In some cases, young people may be referred to adult services if deemed more appropriate for their needs.
Our dedicated paediatric physiotherapy team works collaboratively with each child or young person to support the development of essential motor skills such as crawling, walking, running and jumping, while promoting greater independence and confidence in daily life. Our ultimate goal is to enable children and young people to fully participate in and enjoy everyday activities at home, school and within their communities.
With extensive experience across a wide range of conditions, our team provides thorough assessments, tailored therapy sessions and personalised rehabilitation plans. These can be delivered within our comfortable and fully equipped private clinic, as well as in nurseries, homes or other community-based settings when appropriate.
We take a holistic and family-centred approach, working closely with parents and carers, educational settings, social care teams and other healthcare professionals to ensure the best outcomes for every child we support.
Being a Children’s Physiotherapist is a really specialised job, so much so that they even have their own organisation! Due to this, they are able to understand:
Child Development
Normal and abnormal movement patterns
How movement skills develop
Therapeutic interventions that enable and optimise development and well being
Childhood diseases and conditions that impact on development and well being
The Child is the centre of the treatment and everything should be planned around them
How best to keep children and young people safe
How to explain the information to a young person in a way that they are able to make an informed choice
What does the Assessment look like?
First and foremost, this is an assessment of the needs of the young person that we are seeing.
This assessment may include, but not be limited to :
- 01 Strength and Co-ordination
- 02 Motor Development
- 03 Posture & Balance
- 04 Quality of Movement
- 05 Function
Once our skilled Physiotherapist has done the assessment with the young person, they will feed back their findings and discuss a therapy plan with the child and family. We always encourage the family to be fully involved in the whole process as this makes it a lot easier for the child.
What Conditions Can Be Treated?
These break down into a few categories :
Developmental Delay
When a child shows difficulty in achieving a milestone in one or several areas of development.
Physiotherapy can support the child with the skills and strength to overcome these difficulties, enabling them to be more functional in the world around them.
Neurological Conditions
Cerebral Palsy
Brain Injuries
Difficulties associated with a premature birth, such as stiffness in muscles, poor movement patterns, floppiness
Meningitis
Physiotherapy can really help in the management of these conditions. If you start early, research has shown that this can provide benefits as it can ‘rewire’ the brain!
Neuromuscular Conditions
Spina Bifida and other Spinal defects
Auto immune conditions
Muscular diseases, such as Spinal Muscular Atrophy or Duchene Muscular Dystrophy
Physiotherapy works well to strengthen the muscles and teaches alternative strategies for movement with the use of orthosis and equipment.
The therapy supports young people in maintaining mobility and other physical skills by delaying the deterioration as much as possible in progressive muscular conditions.
Congenital Conditions
These are conditions that exist from birth.
Physiotherapy helps in stretching the tight muscles and strengthens the weak muscles to enable the child to improve their movements. It also helps to avoid any further deterioration and deformity.
Genetic & Metabolic Conditions
Physiotherapy plays a major role in identifying muscular difficulties and supporting the child with skills and strengths that are required for their development.
Musculoskeletal & Sports Injuries
Joint pains/ aches
Back Pain
Sports Injuries, such as tendonitis and ligament injuries
Hypermobility
Flat Feet
Orthopaedic & Surgical Rehabilitation
Upper & Lower Limbs
Muscle/ Tendon surgeries – eg Hamstring Release
Bone surgery such as hip
Spinal fusion/ correction surgeries
Physiotherapy is a vital part of the rehabilitation process! It helps to promote the child’s mobility and function. Our Therapy will strengthen the weak muscles, elongate the tight muscles to provide stability, balance and help the child to reach their full potential.
What Can Xcel Health Offer?
If you would like to learn more about how our paediatric physiotherapy team can support your child, please do not hesitate to get in touch. You can give us a call to speak with a member of our team, or simply fill out a short form to request a call back at your convenience.
We have also produced an informative brochure that provides more detail about our services. To download your copy, please complete the short form linked below.
Our Facilities
For more information, please complete the short form below
Know Your Pain
GOOGLE REVIEWS
"Just finished a course of physiotherapy on a calf injury at Xcel Health and can't praise them enough. Friendly, welcoming and professional staff and my physio Xavier has been excellent throughout, providing great treatment and advice. This isn't my first visit to Xcel Heath and when I found that I needed treatment, there was only one place I was looking to go. Highly recommend."
- Mark Bullen, 2 weeks ago
"We recently moved down from London having used the same physio for years who was excellent. Over the past 3 years I have tried three physiotherapists in the Sittingbourne area and I have finally found through a friend's recommendation probably the best one of all. I was treated by Xavier who completely cured an extremely painful back which I've had for years following surgery I can't thank him enough and would highly recommend Xcel."
- Stephen Quirke, 3 weeks ago
"Hi, I'm Carolyne Holding and I've recently had a course of physio treatment at Xcel health. I've had problems with kneck & shoulder pain/tension and have found my treatment at Xcel most beneficial. I cannot thank them enough. I would certainly recommend their practice to anyone. And finally a very big thankyou to Desiree Vaz who treated me"
- robert holding, 3 weeks ago
"I have had several sessions with Desiree and she has been so helpful!! Came to see her with a strained thumb joint that was causing me severe pain for months. A few sessions with her along with the exercises she gave me and I no longer have any pain in my hand!! Would definitely recommend Xcel Health to friends and family."
- Nicola Smith, a months ago
"My experience at Xcel Health was wonderful. The staff are welcoming, friendly, hospitable and professional. My practitioner was Anagha Chandrashekhar and she is very good at what she does. She made all my physio sessions interesting and helpful. She taught me some new exercises which helped to alleviate the pain in my back and strengthen my biceps. She is very calm, patient and friendly. Every session I attended was good and no complaints. I will definitely recommend Xcel Health to friends."
- Oluwasesan Adamolekun, a months ago
"I had my first treatment with V. She was amazing, she made me feel relaxed, talked me through each stage in terminology I understood and I left in a lot less pain than I arrived with! I can’t recommend V enough. Thank you!"
- Eve S, 2 months ago
"Xcel Health is amazing! My son (age 8) first had treatment there and amazing and big improvements. So helpful. I am having treatment for my ankle and walking issues with Xavier. The pain has gone from 10(being the worst) to 4 and that’s in four appointments. I can now walk without pain, put shoes without pain and now go back too exercise!! I can even go running without pain. Xavier is great and makes me feel comfortable and explains everything in detail."
- Rebecca King, 3 months ago
"I have just had my third session with Xavier and am beyond delighted with my experience of Xcel Health. Xavier is a tremendous physio but what has struck me most about the whole process is the welcoming nature of the entire team.The guys clearly care about the mental health side as much as the physical and are easy to talk to and extremely empathetic.I would recommend Xcel to anybody, outstanding service!"
- Danny Essen, 3 months ago
"I was pretty confident I knew what the problem was when I arrived for my first appointment. It turned out to be something completely different.Xavier explained everything really well without going too technical. I like to understand what’s going on and how to fix it so it was really refreshing that Xavier did that without needing to ask him. I have exercises to help support my recovery but not just a bit of paper or a video to watch, Xavier asked me to do each exercise before I left so that I could feel what muscles I’m trying to engage and He could make adjustments to my positioning so that I get the most out of my effort."
- louisajayne, 3 months ago
"Xcel Health is amazing! My son (age 8) first had treatment there and amazing and big improvements. So helpful. I am having treatment for my ankle and walking issues with Xavier. The pain has gone from 10(being the worst) to 4 and that’s in four appointments. I can now walk without pain, put shoes without pain and now go back too exercise!! I can even go running without pain. Xavier is great and makes me feel comfortable and explains everything in detail."
- Rebecca King, 3 months ago
