Our Accredited Exercise Physiologist (AEP) specialises in using exercise interventions for treating paediatric conditions. The aim of an Exercise Physiologist is to provide guidance to help achieve functional goals and support participation.
To become accredited as an Exercise Physiologist, you must complete a master’s degree in clinical Exercise Physiology with a preceding undergraduate degree in sports science and exercise science. Our Exercise Physiologist works closely with our physiotherapists for a targeted multi-disciplinary approach to helping those achieve goals. Exercise Physiologists differ from physiotherapy and other health practitioners through their sole reliance upon using “exercise as medicine”. There is alot of overlap between a physiotherapist and exercise physiologist within our team but our physiotherapist tend to lead on cases where we would prescribe equipment and the exercise Physiologists lead on kids in the community and support self management and transition to sports. They liaise closely with occupational therapists (OT), paediatricians, general practitioners (GP) and orthopaedic surgeons in delivering specialised exercise-based rehabilitation. Helping empower and encourage young children to live active life’s is an important role for an Exercise Physiologist. This is to ensure a sedentary lifestyle is not pursued as many negative co-morbidities may arise as a result.
Our Exercise Physiologist works with children and adolescents with conditions and is not limited to cerebral palsy (CP), muscular dystrophy (DMD), autism and attention deficit disorder (ADD), developmental delay, and kids ranging from Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) level 1 through level 5. Which includes working with children in wheelchairs and other mobility devices. Our Exercise Physiologist will work closely with individual goals and devise an exercise program to help work towards this.
An exercise program can be specific in helping strengthen certain muscle groups to assist with walking and balance. This may be specific for kids in orthotics or wearing ankle-foot orthoses (AFOs). This is a reality for many young children and using Exercise Physiology to assist children in being able to run, jump and play freely is commonly observed. In addition to this, skills such as gross and fine motor skills, coordination and proprioception, and ball skills can be worked on with our Exercise Physiologist. Exercise Physiology can further be utilised to assist with skill development of bike and scooter riding.
Depending on your child’s needs, this treatment might be best achieved at home, school or gym setting or completed in conjunction with our Exercise Physiologist present in those settings. We have provide supervised hydrotherapy sessions in local swim facilities for those that require the benefit of warm water therapy to help them achieve their goals. Or run aerobic therapy blocks for those with goals centred around improving cardiovascular health, reducing cardiovascular risk factors, and assisting in weight loss targets.
The benefits of exercise and physical activity on young children is multi-factorial, from improving musculoskeletal health, cardiovascular health, mental health and well-being and overall functional capacity. The improvement that can be observed through regular Exercise Physiology may help your child in several settings such as gym class at school, social sporting activities, community activities or simply have more energy to attend family events.
Our Exercise Physiologist is continuously pursuing further education opportunities to ensure the most recent best practice research is applied in helping your kids achieve their goals through the help of an Exercise Physiologist. If you have any questions regarding how Exercise Physiology may be suitable for your child, please feel free to get in contact with us directly at (03) 9087 9445 or reception@klintkids.com.au.
