- About Footsteps
Unique, ground-breaking physiotherapy programme of rehabilitation, therapeutic exercises and specialised equipment, to help patients achieve their full potential. » - Physiotherapy Programme
Intensive, child friendly, tailored therapy to meet patient specific needs, combining fun and games, with unique and traditional physiotherapy. » - Coming to the Centre
Three-week course of intensive physiotherapy usually comprising three hours of daily rehabilitation, five days a week. » - The Foundation
The Foundation provides financial assistance for those families who might otherwise not be able to afford Footsteps physiotherapy. » - Footsteps in Action
How can you help to fund a footstep and start the journey for a child in need? »
The Spider
The Spider is central to Footsteps physiotherapy. Developed in Poland, the Spider enables physiotherapists to carry out a full course of exercises in any required position. By means of elastic ropes, the patient is supported and therapists are therefore able to isolate, exercise and align different parts of the patient’s body.
For each patient, the Spider creates a unique ‘web’, continually adjusted throughout the physiotherapy sessions.
The Spider increases independence and security, and therefore motivates even the most reluctant child, allowing them a totally new experience of movement and balance. The programme allows patients to undergo kinaesthetic, touch and motion experiences, which help in the development of balancing reactions.
Spider physiotherapy helps particularly with movements such as supporting, reaching, grasping and holding. The patient can achieve the correct body positions for crawling, sitting, kneeling, one-legged kneeling and standing, as well as maintaining and changing these positions independently. By means of the Spider, patients are taught to shift their body weight and move from one place to another, enabling greater mobility and independence.
Children love Spider physiotherapy as it gives them the crucial freedom to move independently. Therapy is supplemented where required for the individual patients with traditional therapeutic equipment such as balls, rolls, trampolines, treadmills and ladders.
Children and young adults enjoy these exercises enormously because they are great fun, develop confidence and promote faith in their growing abilities and progress.
Traditional therapeutic equipment such as balls, trampolines, treadmills, balance boards and ladders are used to help to stimulate the correct neurological activity in the children during Neuro Development (NDT)-Bobath and Proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF).
The extensive range of equipment enables the therapists to make the exercises varied and interesting, often incorporating games and toys to encourage young patients to become involved in and enjoy their physiotherapy.
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Testimonials
- We were really amazed as we’d been told she would never achieve any purposeful independent movement at all. Now she is high kneeling, crawling (after a fashion!) and standing with very minimal support.
