Therapy Services
Occupational Therapy
A child’s job or occupation is to play, be independent in self-care activities, and succeed in school. Occupational therapists treat children with disorders that may inhibit their ability to be successful in these areas. An occupational therapist will address this by teaching fine motor activities (how to hold and manipulate objects), visual-motor activities (eye hand coordination), activities to increase upper body strength and endurance, teach the body how to appropriately react to sensory information and self-care skills.
More information about occupational therapy
Physical Therapy
Physical therapy helps to increase a child’s mobility, range of motion, strength, endurance, postural support and balance, so that they are better able to play and move at home and in the community. A physical therapist may use massage, heat, stretching, or strength training with children who have delays involving large muscles and orthopedic development. Physical therapy is also used to address sports related injuries.
More information about physical therapy
Speech Therapy
Speech Therapy treats delays and disorders in the areas of speech, voice, language communication, swallowing, feeding and cognition. A speech therapist will use a variety of treatment methods to improve a child’s ability to communicate wants and needs, understand others, improve fluency of language, articulation, and improve memory and retention. A speech therapist will also evaluate and treat children with feeding and swallowing concerns to safely manage liquids and foods.
More information about speech therapy
Vital Stim Therapy
A non-invasive therapy that uses an electrical current to stimulate the muscles responsible for swallowing while trained specialists help patients to "re-educate" the muscles with special exercises. The small, carefully calibrated current is delivered by specially designed electrodes, which are placed on the back of the neck. The current stimulates motor nerves in the throat while the patient practices swallowing exercises that cause the swallowing muscles to contract.
Symptoms of dysphagia include: aspiration or penetration of liquids into the airway, atypical voice quality (wet, hoarse or weak), feeling like food is stuck in the throat, drooling, multiple swallows required to clear food, delayed swallowing trigger, anterior spillage of foods or liquids, vallecular pooling, premature spillage of foods or liquids into the airway and nasal regurgitation.
If you see a child that has difficulty eating or drinking, VitalStim Therapy should be considered. For more information on VitalStim or candidacy for treatment, please refer to vitalstimtherapy.com or call Big Sky Pediatric Therapy and speak with Caren Arnold, our certified VitalStim specialist.
Specialty Programs
- Interactive Metronome
- Mary Benbow's Foundational Hand Skills
- Debra Beckman Oral Motor Skills and Assessment
- Sensory Integration
- Dysgraphia
- Yoga for the Special Child
- Music Therapy
