28/04/2026
Some of the non-billable things that fill my day....
Working with kids and people with disabilities isn't the same as most physiotherapy work.
We need to work out what's going on in the body, muscles, sensory or nervous system that is making completing the goal challenging....
Come up with the right exercises to target that.... But we often can't just explain why the exercises will work and prescribe them. Or supervise practice while typing up our notes....
We need to work out how to explain, practice and monitor outcomes when working with someone who may not be able to communicate any questions, discomfort or issues easily. Or who may not be able to understand, or gets overwhelmed by the instructions.
We need to motivate and engage kids and so make it lay based, distract from the challenge or discomfort and maintain control of the game to actually get the exercise done.
We need to come up with a reason to do squats, or sit up straight or crawl that overcomes that difficulty.
We need to keep it varied and unique and fun.
I spend a lot of time in trial and error to work out a new way to activate muscles or encourage control of movement.
This is research and development in action. Treatment complexity reduces our time (and brain space) to fill our whole days with back to back appointments.
This is not time I can bill to NDIS, or a family, but taking this time allows us to improve quality of life and enjoyment for the young people we see who sometimes miss out on so much of the fun of life.
