A day in the life of a pediatric physical therapist

I am a physical therapist.  This profession takes me on many different journeys over the course of each day and week.  In fact, no two days are alike for me.  My primary mission is to help children and young adults with physical disabilities to become independent and successful in managing their environments.  In addition, I am on a mission to educate others to become physical therapists. 

I became interested in the field of physical therapy after growing up with an uncle who had polio.  My Uncle Jake was a funny, energetic man capable of doing many things, but he needed to use crutches to walk because the muscles in his legs were very weak. He was able to do construction jobs and I would watch him take apart my parents’ bathroom and redo it.  Jake was also an avid boater and swimmer. Nothing stopped him from working or having fun. 

Now that I am a physical therapist, I seek to help others to overcome challenges that they may face because of physical difficulties.  A day in my professional life can include working on teaching a toddler how to walk and that afternoon I may be helping a 10 year old transfer from her wheelchair to a classroom chair.  Another day, I might be helping a 3 year old use both arms and legs the same way while moving on a scooter board and later that day may help a 12 year old stretch the muscles in his legs.  I typically work with children in schools, daycares centers, their homes, or in my private office. There are also days when I go to teach graduate students at a local college so that they can go on and become licensed therapists and help others as well.

The children I work with have disabilities. My job is to help them to improve strength, endurance and function so that they can be more independent and successful in any environment. Therapy consists of activities and exercises to increase muscle strength, build endurance, increase range of motion or flexibility of the muscles and teach skills needed to be successful.

Some of the activities and exercises done in PT include things like crab walking, bear walking, wall squats, and jumping. Sometimes we do throwing, catching and kicking activities.  Some of the equipment used in PT includes balance beams, balance boards, weights and therapy balls.  Most of the children with whom I work have specific goals, usually on a document called an Individual Education Program (IEP). These goals will vary depending on the child’s level of function and or disability. When working with a child, I need to keep these goals in mind as they are things we would like to achieve and are used to measure progress.

As you can see my job is unique in that it does not follow a typical routine. There is never a boring moment in my work. Not only do I like this but also I love that I get to work with and help so many children of different ages and different disabilities. My job brings me tremendous satisfaction especially when I get to see children achieve goals that they work so hard to achieve!