Did you know? First Step is offering Aquatic Therapy for all ages now!  Our main office specializes in seeing children, but all ages are welcome at Snohomish Aquatic Center for Aquatic Therapy! From post-op to pre-school, birth through the golden years, almost everyone can benefit from Aquatic PT! Those who are looking to progress their balance, strength, body awareness, breathing, sensory processing, and mobility can greatly benefit from the advantages that physical therapy in the pool has to offer. Specifically, Aquatic Therapy has been shown to be beneficial for those with Cerebral P ..read more

One of my greatest joys in being a pediatric physical therapist is helping little ones learn to thrive through the power of movement. Teaching a little one to reach their arms, kick their legs, roll around, and move themselves from one place to another can be so crucial for empowering little ones to learn to explore the world around them and build connections with others. A baby’s first experience with independent mobility typically occurs when they start to roll, usually around 4-6 months. After rolling comes crawling, and after crawling comes walking. Each of these stages provides more and ..read more

Our story The photo above is a photo of my son when he was about a week old. He was born with a posterior tongue tie, which made feeding him super challenging. Breastfeeding was painful, and he had difficulty with latching. He had his tongue tie released when he was about 10 days old. Getting his frenectomy done made a world of difference, but it took work from an entire team to help him relearn how to use his new tongue and range of motion. What is a tongue tie?  A tongue tie, also known as anklyloglossia, is the most common type of tethered oral tie (TOT). It is a condition in which a s ..read more

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a developmental disability that impacts the way a person interacts with their world. Children with autism are often delayed in their gross motor development and have difficulty with motor planning, balance, and coordination. However, many preschoolers with autism are able to run, jump, and climb on play structures, which can sometimes cause their gross motor deficits to be overlooked. Children with autism often enjoy activities involving movement, but struggle with the nuances of those activities such as controlled starting and stopping, grading force and pressure ..read more

The New York Times recently came out with an article entitled “What to Look for in a Physical Therapist: Not all P.T.s are created equal. Find a professional who values evidence over anecdote.” While this article was aimed towards the adult orthopedic population, it got me thinking about how much more important it can be to find a quality pediatric PT that works well with your child and family. If you haven’t read this article yet, I encourage you to check it out here: https://www.nytimes.com/article/physical-therapist-search.html Pediatric PTs often see children with longer-term disabilitie ..read more

Summer is the perfect time to go outside and enjoy nature in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. It’s the reason we tolerate all the wet and gray the other 9 months of the year! However, for many families of children with a disability, just going outside and finding a hike to go on that’s accessible for them isn’t easy. Outdoor adventures often involve packing a walker, stroller, wheelchair, or other mobility device and finding a trail that the device can go on. For many wheelchair users, obstacles such as a root sticking too high out of the ground or loosely packed gravel can make a trail comp ..read more

While small private practice clinics may not have all the fancy equipment and specialized programs that many larger corporations offer, seeing a healthcare provider in a locally owned private practice clinic can have many other perks that larger corporations are not able to offer.  Small private practices are small businesses run by passionate healthcare providers willing to take that huge leap of faith to start out on their own. The initial risks and costs of starting up can be substantial, and healthcare providers have to truly love and believe in what they do to be willing to take i ..read more

  One of the first exercises that a PT might start with for treating torticollis is incorporating more tummy time, which can help with strengthening baby’s neck, trunk, and shoulders, and can help stretch out some of the tightness that goes along with torticollis. It can also help prevent the formation or decrease the progression of a flat spot (plagiocephaly). It is generally recommended that little ones get at least an hour total of tummy time each day, but tummy time can be more challenging for some little ones than others.  Here are some of my favorite tips:  Tummy time ..read more

It is so important that little ones with torticollis are treated early, preferably during the first 3 months of life! But sometimes that first physical therapy evaluation can be a little intimidating when children are so young and everything is still so new. What is torticollis? Torticollis is tightness in the sternocleidomastoid muscle (and often other neck musculature) in infants, and results in a strong preference for infants to tilt and/or turn their head towards one side. This often stems from their positioning in utero, but can be exacerbated by positioning after birth. Infants who are ..read more

As a pediatric physical therapist who has worked in both the school-based and outpatient clinic settings, I frequently receive questions on the difference between the two settings and why their child might receive services in one setting versus the other.  The main difference between school-based and clinic-based PT is the focus and purpose of the interventions.  School-based physical therapists focus on access and help students physically access their school environment as independently and fully as possible. For example, a school-based PT might help a child work on sitting balance ..read more