Your child’s first years set the foundation for successful learning and growing. Perham Health is ready to help diagnose and treat conditions that hinder your child from reaching their potential.

Perham Health’s Nelson Therapy Center offers free pediatric screening for children from birth to age 12. The screening consists of parent interviews and child observation by trained speech, occupational, and physical therapists to address any questions or concerns about your child’s development.

Parents worry when their children do not hit general milestones, such as crawling, having facial expressions, and the different stages of talking. Generally, parents compare growth to other children; however, Perham Health’s providers can identify specific developmental growth and delays. In addition, the age-specific screening covers all the basic and brand-new skills children typically develop during the first years of life.

Four areas addressed in the screenings are physical, communication/cognitive, sensory, and self-help. Physical consists of rolling, crawling, and walking. Communication and cognitive cover talking, following directions, thinking, and learning. Sensory includes auditory, tactile, taste, and sleep patterns. Lastly, self-help refers to eating, dressing, and playing.

Commonly, children with delays only require a little extra help to get where they need to be. A few of the developmental delays can be linked to and diagnosed with autism, Asperger’s syndrome, cerebral palsy, and brain injuries.

To help with these delays, our speech, occupational, and physical therapists meet with you and your child to develop an individualized strategy for improvement.

The speech therapist can improve a child’s receptive language (what they understand), expressive language (what they say), fluency/stuttering, difficulty with pronunciation, and the production of speech. Speech therapy can address swallowing and oral-motor problems, such as aversions to certain types of foods or liquids, and work with technology to augment a child’s communication abilities.

The occupational therapist can help children develop fine motor skills, using the hands for small and often precise movements such as feeding themselves, dressing, and playing. Another area is visual motor skills, such as performing tasks with the hands and requiring visual feedback. Lastly, sensory processing abilities are the ability to take in all the messages from the senses and turn them into appropriate behavioral responses.

The physical therapist works on improving a child’s gross motor skills using large muscle groups. Activities such as standing and sitting balance, control of head posture, crawling, walking, and moving from floor to standing, create a fun atmosphere in the therapy department. For toddlers to young children, play activities such as tricycle riding and climbing also help them enjoy their time in therapy.

Our knowledgeable therapists work passionately to help your child improve. By making the therapy fun and working on essential skills through play and learning activities, the therapists connect with your child for the best results. Also, teaming up with caregivers and parents can maximize their progress to carry over at home.

To schedule a free pediatric screening, call 218-347-1590.