MU Health Care’s Children’s Therapy team treats a variety of conditions.
Autism: This refers to a range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication, and unique strengths and differences.
Brachial plexus injury: It is an injury to the network of nerves in the neck and chest area that provide signals from the spine to the arm, hand and shoulder can require treatment that may include dressing, handwriting and hand-eye coordination skills.
Cerebral palsy: It is a congenital disorder caused by brain damage that affects balance, movement, muscle control and coordination, motor skills and oral motor function.
Cleft lip/palate: A cleft lip/palate happens if the tissue that makes up the lip and/or roof of the mouth does not join together completely before birth. For some babies, both the front and back parts of the palate are open. For other babies, only part of the palate is open.
Cortical visual impairment (CVI): This is a decreased visual response caused by a neurological problem affecting the visual part of the brain. Typically, a child with CVI has a normal eye exam or has an eye condition that cannot account for the abnormal visual behavior.
Cystic fibrosis: It is a life-threatening condition that causes the body to produce too much mucus in the lungs and digestive system, causing persistent lung infections. It limits the ability to breathe over time.
Developmental delay: This condition is when a child does not reach a developmental milestone by the expected age — often related to motor, language, thinking or social skills.
Down syndrome: It is a genetic disorder characterized by an extra copy of chromosome 21 (trisomy 21) that causes intellectual and developmental delays.
Dysphagia: This is a condition in which infants have difficulty swallowing, typically caused by multiple factors.
Dyspraxia: This is sometimes known as developmental coordination disorder. Children are often considered clumsy because of difficulty planning and coordinating physical movement.
Gait abnormalities: This condition is an atypical walking pattern. Gait abnormalities can occur from a variety of causes and may or may not be related to a medical condition.
Juvenile arthritis: These are autoimmune and inflammatory conditions in children that often involve pain, joint swelling, redness and warmth.
Muscular dystrophy: It is a group of diseases that cause progressive weakness and loss of muscle mass. In muscular dystrophy, abnormal genes interfere with the production of proteins needed to form healthy muscle.
Neuromuscular conditions: These disorders affect the nerves that control your voluntary muscles, impacting the way a muscle functions.
Orthopaedic injuries: These are injuries to the bones, joints, ligaments, tendons, cartilage and/or connective tissue.
Sensory processing disorders: These conditions affect the way the nervous system receives messages from the senses and turns them into responses. These responses are often different from the expected response.
Sensorineural hearing loss: This condition occurs after inner ear damage or when there are problems with the nerve pathways from your inner ear to your brain, resulting in profound hearing loss.
Speech apraxia: It is a disorder in which children have trouble saying words, sounds and syllables because of difficulty connecting speech messages from the brain to the mouth. Children might not be able to move their lips or tongue to the right place to say sounds, even though their muscles are not weak.
Spina bifida: This is a birth defect in which the spinal cord does not develop correctly. In myelomeningocele, a type of spina bifida, the spinal cord does not close properly. These defects can result in damage to the spinal cord and surrounding nerves, which affects motor function.
Torticollis: This condition causes the neck muscles to contract in a way that causes a child’s head to turn to one side. If torticollis remains untreated, it can lead to asymmetrical development of motor skills.
Traumatic brain injury: This is brain damage caused by a serious head injury.