Our staff treats children and teens who are recovering from conditions and disorders that impair physical, mental or cognitive functions, such as brain dysfunctions and injuries, spinal cord injuries, stroke, cardiac complications and burns. We also treat patients whose illness or injury has affected their normal breathing patterns.
We offer comprehensive inpatient rehabilitation through a variety of specialized programs and therapies. Physicians, nurses, therapists and other staff provide rehabilitation seven days a week.
Our Brain Injury Program helps children with brain injuries or other neurological conditions develop the functional skills they need to return home and to the community as quickly as possible. We provide an individualized, progressive treatment plan to help them succeed and reach their full potential.
Our burn rehabilitation services address everything from partial surface burns to full and deep injuries. We provide individualized burn rehab—such as self-care, dressing and wound care—to help children gain the confidence and skills to regain function and independence. Therapy is a vital part of the physical, emotional, social and functional rehabilitation of our patients.
Our burn rehab specialists help children regain the ability to perform everyday activities, such as going to school. Our comprehensive care includes:
Our Cardiac Rehabilitation Program helps those with congenital (present at birth) heart defects and acquired heart disease increase endurance, regain strength, and reduce future health risks. One of only a few of its kind in the country, the pediatric program centers on exercise, education and functional skills. It’s suitable for children and teens with a history of cardiac disorders, such as heart transplant complications, cardiomyopathy, arrhythmias and cardiac arrest.
We provide care for patients from birth to age 21 in all rehabilitation phases—acute, inpatient, day rehab and outpatient—and from early intervention therapy to at-home maintenance. We use age-appropriate methods to help patients achieve developmental milestones and return to active lives.
Our cardiac care team is led by board-certified physiatrists and pediatric cardiologists and may include staff and specialists such as:
We provide specialized care for children and young adults who have a spinal cord injury and a corresponding brain injury, known as dual diagnosis. Patients with a dual diagnosis may experience physical and mental complications. They often need therapy to regain strength and mobility while working on possible learning and memory impairments.
Treatment for pediatric dual diagnosis can be extremely challenging because a child’s growth and development has to be factored into his healthcare. To help patients return home with the highest possible level of function, our multidisciplinary team takes a comprehensive, aggressive and individualized approach that applies age-appropriate treatments.
Team members may include:
Our specialized, intensive rehabilitation therapy can benefit children who are medically stable but in a minimally conscious state after a brain injury. Children receive medical care and therapy to increase function and return home.
Board-certified physiatrists lead a multidisciplinary treatment team that may include gastroenterologists, pulmonologists, neurologists, neuropsychologists, pediatric psychologists and neurosurgeons. We provide three hours of therapy to patients each day, allowing time for rest and structured activity. This allows for ample interaction and supervision with their doctors and therapists.
It’s important for parents to be involved with their child’s care once he leaves the hospital, so our specialists teach you what you need to know and do for at-home care, including:
Music therapy uses musical activity—such as creating, singing, playing or listening to music—to strengthen the physical, emotional, cognitive and social abilities of patients as part of the healing process.
Music therapy at Children’s helps patients:
Our music therapists observe the way your child participates in activities to learn about his musical preferences, interest level and history. Your child’s therapist will use this information to develop a customized music therapy plan, which may involve treatment individually, in peer groups, with the family, or in other therapy sessions. During therapy, your child might play musical instruments, sing or hum, or listen, move or exercise to music. He may also write or compose music or work with multimedia music resources.
The conditions we treat with music therapy are:
We provide specialized rehabilitation for children and teens with spinal cord conditions to help them regain independence and cope with future challenges.
We provide services for teens who require care due to accidents, illnesses or congenital (present at birth) defects. Our therapists help teens develop the skills they need to become independent adults.
Children’s therapeutic recreation not only helps patients resume the activities they enjoyed before their hospitalization, it also introduces them to new activities. Playing in this way can be a profoundly healing experience.
Our therapists use a variety of methods and activities to keep children and teens involved and engaged in their recovery:
Children’s has one of the nation’s largest pediatric inpatient rehabilitation facilities, and in 2016 we treated 431 patients. Our Inpatient Rehabilitation Program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), which has given us specialty recognition for our spinal cord system of care and our brain injury and pediatric specialty programs.
Our outcomes in important areas exceed those of other pediatric programs in the U.S.:
