Ready Steady Therapy

I'm back from maternity leave and I cannot wait to get back to it! I am very lucky that I get to return to seeing so many wonderful families and children at Ready Steady Therapy. Any tips for the mum/work life balance would be greatly appreciated. See you soon, Hannah ☺️

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful dads out there! Thanks for all the dad jokes during physio, what would we do without them 🤣

Ready Steady Therapy is having a holiday we will return on the 26th September. Our team will have limited access to emails and we will not be taking calls during this time. For urgent enquires please email [email protected]

Reimagine Australia were funded by the NDIA to create National Best Practice Guidelines for Early Childhood Intervention. These guidelines outline core principles that help professionals best support families of children with developmental delay and/or disability. The research highlights the best early childhood intervention centres on a family centred and an inclusive approach.

Below is a summary of the guidelines but you can find out more about them here: https://reimagine.org.au/

📣Family centred: families and providers are partners in providing interventions that work best for your family.
📣All families are different and unique: intervention supports should be tailored to the needs and values of your family and be respectful of your cultural and social backgrounds.
📣Your child at home and in the community: inclusion in everyday life at home and in the community and additional supports should be provided as required to allow for full inclusion.
📣Everyday practise and learning: new skills are learnt through partaking in meaningful, everyday activities and routines.
📣Team around your child: one key worker who communicates and shares knowledge with other members of your child’s team.
📣Increasing knowledge for all family members: supporting and training all the important people in your child’s life so everyone can help them learn and develop.
📣Your wants for your child and family: practitioners will listen to the wants and needs of your family and support your child to achieve them.
📣Quality services and supports practitioners will have the appropriate qualifications and experience when working in the early childhood space.

This month we’ve been enjoying using our balance board, it’s a great way to improve balance, stability, and coordination. We like the balance board as it has multiple uses, you can wobble side to side, forwards and backwards, in sitting or on your hands and knee! A particular favourite game is bending down whilst balancing to pick up bean bags. Did we try this with your child in therapy this month, if so what did you think?

Why is it important for Speech Pathologists and Physio’s work together to support the children we work with?
✅ Therapy sessions are a great time to support communication, often children are very expressive in physio so it's important we know the best ways to communicate with them.
✅ Allows children to have a voice in therapy and chose activities they want to do.
✅ Physio’s can provide positioning advice for communication devices or advise on the child’s movement abilities for communication.
✅ Helps to build strong relationships between the therapist and your child.
✅ Increases the opportunity for your child to communicate and makes communication functional!
✅ Consistent strategies are used.
✅ Helps your child achieve their goals.
✅ Movement supports communication!

It’s Speech Pathology week so we thought we would make a shout out to all those wonderful Speech Pathologists we work with! This year the theme of Speech Pathology week is Good Communication, Better Communities. We love working collaboratively with our Speech Pathology colleagues and value the work they do in supporting us to communicate effectively with the children we work with. Especially when they teach us how to use a child’s communication device, most kids can find the ‘tired’ or ‘stop’ symbol on their AAC devices lightening fast 😂

Did you know we can provide aquatic physiotherapy! We go to local swimming pools, hydro pools, schools or even your own pool. Find out more about aquatic physiotherapy with Ready Steady Therapy here: https://readysteadytherapy.com.au/our-services/

Our values:
🌟Fun
🌟Family centred
🌟Functional independence
🌟Familiarity
🌟Focused

What are leg wraps and why are the used in physio? We’ve explained all in our latest blog post on leg wraps but essentially, they are used to stop the knee from bending which helps to provide a prolonged stretch to the muscles at the back of the thigh and calf and support legs when standing is difficult. Sometimes we even use them on arms! Check out or blog post to find out more about their uses and how to apply them.

https://readysteadytherapy.com.au/leg-wraps-an-information-guide/

📣We are hiring📣 If you are a or know any passionate paediatric physiotherapists then reach out for more info to join our team!

Ready Steady Therapy provides a range of different physiotherapy services from NDIS to baby developmental assessments. Head over to our website to see the full range of our services and if they are suitable for your child. You can book a free 15-minute consult with our team to discuss your child’s physio needs and to book an appointment.
https://readysteadytherapy.com.au/our-services/

There are many reasons for seeing a Paediatric Physiotherapist and there is a large variety of conditions that can benefit from Paediatric Physiotherapy.
If you’d like to discuss your child’s physio needs, we offer a free, 15 minute pre-consultation conducted with one of our expert senior Physiotherapists. During this pre-consultation, we can discuss which of our services would best assist your child, and what the next steps will include.
Head to our website to book now: https://readysteadytherapy.com.au/

Ready Steady Therapy has a new website 🥳 You can find it at the same web address looking all glam and stylish. Go check it out and tell us what you think:
https://readysteadytherapy.com.au/

Ready Steady Therapy | Sydney Paediatric Physiotherapist A mobile paediatric physiotherapy service that provides fun, engaging, and effective physiotherapy treatments to babies, children, and people up to 18 years old.

Our favourite exercise this month is simple and effective it’s the squat! We often use a squatting exercise in physio but you may not realise it! Getting children to bend down to the floor for toys or getting them to keep moving from sitting to standing , are all squats in disguise!

Activities that can help develop coordination:
🤸 Play games like twister, try a home-made version by colouring squares on the ground with chalk, call out the colours and the part of their body that needs to touch it e.g. left leg yellow.
🤸 Practise throwing and catching with balloons or a beach ball, they’re lighter so move slowly making them easier to catch.
🤸 Dancing to action songs e.g head, shoulders, knees and toes or our personal favourite The Wiggles!
🤸 Climbing on playground equipment at parks or soft play centres.

If you have concerns about your child’s coordination then an assessment with a Paediatric Physiotherapist can help.

Some children walk using a specialist walker that gives their body support and provides stability so they can take independent steps. There are many different types of walkers all providing varying levels of support and it is common for children to need a different type of walker every few years as their ability level changes.

As Physiotherapists we love walkers as they allow children to move and explore by themselves, they are a great form of cardiovascular exercise and encourage weight bearing and movement through the legs which is great for building strength and supports healthy bone development.

Chat with a Ready Steady Therapy Physio today if you think your child would benefit from a walker.

Playing with feet is an important stage of baby development, it helps to strengthen their core muscles, learn more about their body and encourages rolling.
You can encourage your baby to play with their feet by placing brightly coloured socks or light rings/hoops over their ankles. You can also help your baby reach for their feet by lifting them up towards their chest, kissing and blowing raspberries on their feet in this position will help them learn where their feet are 👣

Standing frames are specialist pieces of equipment that are used to support children who find it difficult to stand by themselves. We like using them because they offer an alternative position to sitting or lying that holds the child in a supported upright position for play, learning and communication! Oh and they provide a good, prolonged stretch to often stiff leg muscles.
There are lots of different standing frames so it’s good to trial a few so your child receives the most suitable standing frame for their strengths and abilities.

Report writing is an essential part of the NDIS process and helps to get your child the supports they require to achieve their goals and maximise their potential. Things that help us write a great report for your child:
✅ As much notice as possible, 4-6 weeks’ is ideal
✅ Time for joint goal setting
✅ Discussing how the current NDIS plan has been with your therapist prior to your review
✅ Linking in with your child’s other therapists
✅ Trialling equipment a few months before a review

It’s looking like it’ll be another rainy school holidays. Did you try these previous tips for rainy day physio activities?
🌧 Throw all the sofa cushions off the floor and get them to walk or climb across, no touching the floor the crocodiles will get you!
🌧 Have a dance off!
🌧 Do a fun YouTube work out together
🌧 Play hide and seek around the house
🌧 Tap a balloon between everyone, don’t let it touch the floor!
And if they don’t work and it’s safe to do so you may just have to brave the rain in your gumboots for a splash in the puddles!
We’ll see you inside for physio soon 😄

Verschuren et al published guidelines in 2016 for exercise and physical activity for children and adults with cerebral palsy.
Their advice was to aim for:
- Cardiovascular exercise that gets children huffing and puffing for 20 minutes 3 times a week. This could be a seated dance party or cycling a specialist trike.
- Strength training, this helps build muscle, 2 to 4 times per week on non-consecutive days repeating each exercise 6-15 times at least once and up to three times. This could be practising sit to stands or completing core exercises.
- Move for at least 60minutes per day, this could be walking in a walker or rolling on the floor.
- Limiting sedentary positions for 2 hours a day.
Making movement part of your child’s routine is important. We are all made to move and any movement counts towards physical activity, it doesn’t have to be specific exercises or sport. For a lot of children with CP carrying out simple activities such as standing at a surface, playing in kneeling on the floor or stepping counts towards physical activity and gets them building up a sweat 💪😅

Have a Great Week 🤸🌟🙌

Goal setting is a hugely important aspect of physiotherapy. It allows your physio to understand your child’s strengths and weaknesses and to learn what’s important to your child and your family. By setting realistic and achievable goals it helps to keep physio sessions and home exercises stay targeted on activities that will help maximise your child’s success. As well as this the goals created help support your child’s NDIS plan and funding.

We come to you for Aquatic Physiotherapy!
Lots of local leisure centre pools have swimming pools that are heated to warmer temperatures and have accessible changing facilities.
Aquatic physiotherapy uses the properties of water to support the body, aid movement and increase strength with low impact.
Speak to us today about aquatic physio for your child 🏊‍♀️

From March 2022 the NDIS changed the mid-cost AT bracket to include items from $1500 up to $15,000 without needing a quote at your plan review.
You will still need to get a letter from the prescribing therapist to:
🦽 justify why the equipment is reasonable and necessary,
🦽 how the AT will support your child to reach their goals,
🦽 provide an estimated price range for the equipment.

Anything above $15,000 will need a quote at the time of your child’s NDIS plan review.

It’s important to discuss you child’s upcoming NDIS review with your therapists so all potential AT for their next NDIS review can be accounted for. Trialling equipment before purchasing is still strongly recommended to ensure the AT meets your child’s needs.

At Ready Steady Therapy we frequently see children with a variety of walking patterns. Differences with walking often occur in early childhood when a baby is learning to walk and then as they grow and develop. Concerns may arise if your child is slow to walk, walks on their tip toes and walks with their legs turned inwards.
While most of these orthopaedic conditions may resolve with time, our physio assessment can rule out any underlying condition causing these problems and give you peace of mind.
Swipe across for common walking concerns.