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Chapter 13: Special Topics: Pediatrics

Annie Burke-Doe

CLINICAL APPLICATION OF FOUNDATIONAL SCIENCES

Pediatric physical therapy is a specialty practice that addresses the needs of the child and family. Care is provided through support, guidance, and interventions that are family-centered, culturally appropriate, age appropriate (0-21 years), and that improve quality of life and function. Pediatric treatment settings can vary among the acute neonatal intensive care unit, the acute hospital, an outpatient setting, school, and home, to address a few. Pediatric therapists treat infants and children with disabilities, typical developing children, and adolescents and young adults with and without disabilities. Some unique aspects of pediatric physical therapy include the understanding of child development as it relates to behavior management, developmental models, family interactions, social trends, reimbursement issues, and the requirements of working in diverse areas. Table 13–1 describes typical development. Physical therapy models of delivery can include the therapist working independently (unidisciplinary), the therapist evaluating the patient and then meeting with other professionals to discuss the case (multidisciplinary), joint examination with other professionals (transdisciplinary), and working with equal participation in serving the child and family (collaborative).

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High-Yield Terms to Learn
APGAR score An objective score of the condition of a baby after birth. This score is determined by scoring the heart rate, respiratory effort, muscle tone, skin color, and response to a catheter in the nostril.
Antalgic Counteracting or avoiding pain, as a posture or gait assumed to lessen pain.
Baclofen A muscle relaxer and an antispastic agent. Baclofen is used to treat muscle symptoms caused by multiple sclerosis, including spasm, pain, and stiffness. Baclofen is sometimes used to treat muscle spasms and other symptoms in people with injury or disease of the spinal cord.
Botox A highly purified preparation of botulinum toxin A, a toxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. Botox is injected in very small amounts into specific muscles as a treatment for spasticity.
Clonic seizures During a clonic seizure, the individual’s muscles begin to spasm and jerk. The elbows, legs, and head will flex and then relax rapidly at first, but the frequency of the spasms will gradually subside until they cease altogether. As the jerking stops, it is common for the person to let out a deep sigh, after which normal breathing resumes.
Cyanosis A bluish color of the skin and the mucous membranes due to insufficient oxygen in the blood. For example, the lips can develop cyanosis when exposed to extreme cold. Cyanosis can be present at birth, as in a “blue baby,” an infant with a malformation of the heart that permits into the arterial system blood that is not fully oxygenated.
Dantrolene Dantrolene sodium is a postsynaptic muscle relaxant that lessens excitation-contraction coupling in muscle cells. It achieves this by inhibiting Ca2+ release from sarcoplasmic reticulum stores by antagonizing ryanodine receptors.
Diazepam First marketed as Valium, is a medication of the benzodiazepine family that typically produces a calming ...

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