A play-based program for children with developmental difficulties, disabilities, orthopedic conditions and learning problems

Our Pediatric Rehabilitation Program is a play-based, child-centered, family-friendly program focused on achieving progress and success for every child. We provide comprehensive services for children up to 18 years old who experience difficulty with the normal developmental process, have identified disabilities, orthopedic conditions, or are experiencing learning problems.

We’re committed to helping you and your child

Our caring staff can offer you and your child:

• Flexible scheduling – To help you obtain maximum participation and progress for your child.
• Family-centered care – Parents and family are a vital link in our care team and your input, participation and support are extremely important to us.
• Holistic treatment – We treat each child as a whole person with a variety of needs.
• A teamwork approach – We will work closely with your family, your caregiver and your primary care physician to help your child reach his or her greatest potential.

New at CMH: Pediatric Feeding Program

Mealtime challenges make family bonding stressful! That’s why we created the CMH Feeding Program. Our expert staff will treat your child’s feeding or swallowing difficulties with custom, evidence-based recommendations.

Does your child experience any of the following difficulties? 

• Difficulty with bottle or breastfeeding
• Crying or arching during feeding
• Challenges transitioning to solids or new textures
• Challenges transitioning from tube to oral feeding
• Limited diet (‘picky eating’)
• Poor weight gain
• Struggles with self feeding (slow eating or refusing to eat)
• Negative behaviors during meals
• Increased congestion, coughing, or drooling while eating
• Problems chewing, overstuffing, or holding food in mouth

Causes of Feeding Problems:

• Premature birth
• Developmental conditions like cerebral palsy, autism, or muscular dystrophy
• Cleft lip/cleft palate
• Breathing problems
• Reflux or other stomach problems
• Trauma

How can CMH help?

Together, our Occupational and Speech Therapists are helping patients from infancy through age 18 overcome their feeding challenges with custom, evidence based recommendations.

A feeding evaluation at CMH includes:

• Observing the child eating
• Discussions with the family
• Oral-motor, swallowing, and sensory processing assessments

Our goal is to teach patients that mealtimes can be fun, and to introduce new foods safely and gradually. Our teaching strategies support development of the muscles in the mouth, jaw, tongue, lips and cheeks to make eating easier and address any texture sensitivities to food. We use a variety of tools to help with sensory challenges that may be impacting mealtimes. We also offer recommendations for alternative positioning or use of different bottles, cups, utensils, or plates.

Contact your child’s physician for a referral to the CMH Feeding Program. For more information, please call 218-878-7040

A collaborative program to benefit your child

CMH’s Occupational, Speech, and Physical Therapy work together to provide specialized care for a wide-range of development difficulties or disorders that your child may be experiencing. Read on to learn more about each department’s specific care within the Pediatric Rehabilitation Program.

Occupational Therapy

CMH Occupational Therapists are experienced in working with children to develop age-appropriate self-care routines and habits (such as feeding, grooming and dressing), play skills, and social skills. We may recommend adaptive equipment to facilitate the development of age-appropriate abilities as well as find ways to reduce environmental barriers that limit a child’s participation in family, learning and community-based activities. We can also help children with developing automatic and appropriate responses to sensory experiences in order to improve participation in daily activites.

Occupational Therapy can help children with:

• Developmental disabilities
• Premature birth
• Congenital anomalies
• Autism spectrum disorders
• Neurological disorders
• Physical disabilities
• Orthopedic problems
• Sensory processing disorders
• Eye-hand coordination and fine-motor skills
• General lags in developmental milestones in comparison with peers
Visual motor and visual perceptual skills

Speech-Language Pathology

At CMH Speech-Language Pathology, we believe every child deserves to be heard! Our experienced Speech-Language Pathologists provide a wide range of sensory tools and age-appropriate activities to help your child achieve better communication with family members and the wider world. Each child will receive a family centered, individualized treatment plan.

Speech-Language Pathology can help children experiencing:

• Apraxia of speech
• Articulation dysfunction
• Augmentative and alternative communication
• Auditory processing difficulty
• Autism spectrum disorders
• Brain injury
• Cerebral palsy
• Cleft palate
• Developmental delays
• Feeding and swallowing dysfunction
• Genetic disorders
• Language dysfunction
• Fluency dysfunction
• Voice dysfunction
• Developmental delays

Physical Therapy

At the CMH Physical Therapy Department, we work with your child and your family to provide training for gross motor development. This specialized training includes transfers, ambulation, strengthening, stretching, balance, and coordination training. We use standardized testing to help us determine what developmental milestones your child has met and then implement an individualized treatment plan. We work with your family to maximize your child’s physical development to allow interaction with their peers at home, school, and the community. And we have fun along the way!

Physical Therapy can help children diagnosed with:

• Gross motor developmental delays
• Status post orthopedic surgeries
• Torticollis
• Cerebral palsy
• Down’s syndrome
• Autism spectrum disorders
• Neurological disorders
• Physical disabilities
• Brain injuries
• Traumatic injuries
• Status post Botox injections