Children's Physiotherapy

Children’s or Paediatric physiotherapy is the treatment and care of babies, children and young people from birth to 18 years. Children’s physiotherapists bring their specialist skills and additional expert knowledge and experience of child development, child conditions and childhood disabilities.

We provide children’s physiotherapy in Southend-on-Sea, Castlepoint, and Rochford (South East Essex) and work in close partnership with:

• Parents and carers
• Other physiotherapists
• Occupational therapy
• Speech and language therapy
• Health visitors
• Paediatricians
• Orthopaedics
• Orthotics
• Local education authorities
• Early years team

We are specialist services which provide assessments and treatments for all children that are referred and present with difficulties in the following areas:

• Congenital disorders
• Movement and coordination disorders
• Developmental delay
• Neuromuscular conditions
• Neurological disorders
• Rheumatology
• Musculoskeletal/orthopaedic
• Oncology
• Transition into adult services.

We are based at the Lighthouse Child Development Centre but will provide support at the most appropriate venue for the child. This may include:

• Lighthouse Child Development Centre
• Home visits
• Nursery visits
• School visits
• Input within Special Educational Needs (SEN) schools, colleges and days centres

We provide three main areas of service, which are divided as follows:

Pre-school Service

This is for all children under the age of 5  with a range of children’s clinical conditions. This includes neurodevelopmental, neuromuscular, musculoskeletal, genetic, and other conditions affecting children’s development.

Functional Improvement

This is for children who have acute or long-standing musculoskeletal problems and chronic fatigue syndrome. This service provides physiotherapy and occupational therapy for children from 5 to 16 years who need therapy for acute and chronic musculoskeletal
conditions and coordination difficulties.

Community

This is for children with long term difficulties aged 5 to18 years, including neurological and developmental disorders, progressive conditions and learning difficulties, within a community setting. This includes children in mainstream aged 5 to 18 years and children and young people in special educational needs school aged 3 to 19 years.

Charities

There are charities who can support families.

The following professionals can refer children to our service using this referral form.

• Healthcare professionals s (GPs, Paediatricians, Speech and Language Therapists, Physiotherapists, Health Visitors, Nurses, Educational psychologist)
• Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCo) / Teachers
• Early Support Workers.