Pediatric Therapy

Pediatric therapy at St. Peter’s Health helps children with developmental, neurological, and orthopedic disorders that affect their ability to perform the "jobs" of children. We work with children—and their parents—to develop ways to move, play, dress, eat, communicate and succeed in their daily lives.

St. Peter’s Health's pediatric therapy includes physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy.

St. Peter’s Approach to Pediatric Therapy

From infancy through adolescence, a child’s developmental needs can be met with proper early intervention.

Our team of occupational therapists, physical therapists and speech therapists work together with your family to maximize your child’s potential for physical, emotional and developmental growth.

Our pediatric therapists provide thorough evaluations and treatment to work on improving skills in all developmental areas of life.

Quality Pediatric Therapy at St. Peter’s

Our pediatric rehabilitation program offers a child-centered therapy facility. We have a child and family friendly waiting room and eight private treatment rooms for individual sessions with spaces for feeding, table top activities, sensory integration, gross motor movement, and opportunities for parent observation.
We have a large, open play gym with multiple swings, a loft space with slide and monkey bars, and a large area for scooters, bikes and play. Our gym area allows for interactive, social treatment with other patients as appropriate.
We offer aquatic therapy for our pediatric patients at our satellite clinic in Capital City Health Club.
We are the only program in Helena that includes physical therapy (PT), occupational therapy (OT) and speech therapy in one pediatric rehabilitation program. This enables us to use a team approach to collaborate between PT, OT and speech therapy to provide more comprehensive treatment.

Pediatric Occupational Therapy

Occupational therapy (OT) analyzes the functional performance of children to help them better participate in activities of daily living.

Pediatric OT treatment addresses:

Motor skills and motor planning
Bilateral coordination
Fine motor skills (grasping, pre-writing skills, manipulation, scissor skills and handwriting)
Visual perception
Self-care, including dressing, grooming, toileting, and bathing
Oral–motor skills, such as feeding
Sensory integration and sensory processing, including sensory defensiveness, under registration, sensory seeking and oral aversion
Play skill development
Facilitation of self-regulation skills and use of adaptive behaviors
Splinting
Adaptive equipment and seating needs
Parent training, including home programs
Primitive reflex integration

Pediatric Physical Therapy

Physical therapy analyzes children’s movement patterns to help them access their world more fully.

Pediatric PT treatment addresses:

Gross motor skills
Balance
Coordination
Posture
Endurance and strength
Post-concussion syndrome
Ankle and foot orthotics (shoe inserts)
Toe walking
Adaptive equipment and seating needs
Aquatic therapy

Pediatric Speech Therapy

Speech therapy (also known as speech-language pathology) analyzes children’s language and speech to help them communicate effectively with peers and family. Speech therapists also assess and treat feeding and swallowing issues.

Pediatric speech therapy treatment addresses:

Communication, including receptive and expressive language
Auditory processing, including following directions and recalling vocabulary and concepts
Oral-motor skills, including eating and drinking food safely
Articulation and phonemic awareness, including intelligible speech
Voice and fluency, including the quality of voice and speaking without stuttering