The Neuromotor Therapy Program at Boston Children’s Hospital is a consultation service for children with movement disorders related to early life brain injury. Our central goal is to help them reach their full potential in all aspects of motor skills.
If your child is seen in our program, child neurologist Basil Darras, MD and physical therapist Janet Quigley, PT, PCS will carefully evaluate his specific motor strengths and challenges. They may also consult with Boston Children’s orthopedic surgeons and neurosurgeons. Together, we develop a treatment plan to enhance your child’s motor function. We consider all aspects of motor function, including your child’s ability to walk, use his hands and speak.
We can communicate with your referring physician and the therapists who will be providing ongoing treatment. If needed, we can help you find therapists in your community or refer your child to treatment services at Boston Children’s in programs such as the Cerebral Palsy Program. Our team can also help you access appropriate services in your child’s school. We want to make sure that your child has the right services for him and that your family gets the support you need.
You can periodically return to our clinic to consult with us about how your child is responding to therapies and how his needs are changing.
Our expertise
Children who experienced a brain injury very early in life can have a variety of problems with their ability to move, and their needs change frequently as they get older. Our Neuromotor Therapy Program at Boston Children’s Hospital is devoted to maximizing the motor skills of these children.
We work with children with any non-progressive, early-life brain injury, including:
Our goal is to help your child reach her full potential in all aspects of her motor function, including her ability to walk, use her hands and speak.
We are a consultation service who can evaluate your child’s specific motor strengths and challenges and develop a plan for therapy in her school or with therapists in your community. We can communicate back to your child’s primary neurologist and therapists about our recommendations, and then periodically reassess how she is responding to the therapies and how her needs are changing.
Our program includes Boston Children’s specialists from Neurology, Physical Therapy, Orthopedic Surgery, and Neurosurgery who combine their expertise to devise the best therapeutic strategies for each individual child. We also draw on advances in neuroscience research and technology to benefit our patients.
Tools for communication
We collaborate extensively with the Augmentative Communication Program, where specialists use a variety of innovative strategies to enable children to communicate effectively.
