Pediatric Physical Therapy in Kansas City

Increasing your child’s trunk and core stability can be helpful for many areas of gross motor development. Good trunk and core strength is also essential for supporting a child’s postural control. This strength is necessary for daily tasks, such as sitting upright in their chair during writing tasks or maintaining a “criss-cross” seated position.

Below are a few examples you can try, appropriate for children who have been walking for at least a year.

Crawling: Not only is crawling a great exercise for core strengthening, but it also helps with strengthening shoulder stabilizers. This assists with improving the ability to complete fine motor activities. Consider adding in crab walks or bear crawls to challenge your child, or add a tunnel for even more fun!

Animal walks: Animal walks are a unique exercise where children imitate an animal’s movement. These activities are a creative way to incorporate gross motor skills and strengthening into your child’s activities. Children think they’re fun, and they also provide a number of physical benefits.

Everyday activities: There are so many core strengthening exercises you can have your child do outside of pediatric physical therapy in Kansas City! These include:

• Swinging
• Climbing up a slide or other playground equipment
• Going up and down stairs
• Riding a bike
• Pushing a chair
• Pulling a heavy laundry basket
• Shoveling snow
• Raking leaves
• Being on all fours (you can make it fun by working on a puzzle or playing a
• board game in this position)
• Swimming
• Jumping

Toe walking is when a child walks on the toes or the balls of the feet. This is fairly common in children who are just beginning to walk. Most children outgrow it.

Typically, toe walking develops when a child learns to walk. In a few cases, toe walking can stem from an underlying condition. This could be a short Achilles tendon, sensory differences, or other neuromuscular causes that impact strength or tone in the calf.

Early intervention is key! The longer a child is toe walking, the higher the risk for long-term joint injury. Visit us for pediatric physical therapy in Kansas City to take early action.