As 2-year-old Andris reaches up to catch a bubble he has no idea he’s working on his strength and balance. He’s just playing. The fact that his “playmates” are physical therapists in training makes no difference to Andris, he just wants them to blow more bubbles.
Welcome to PT “summer camp” at Joya.
For the past four weeks, 12 doctoral students from Eastern Washington University’s Physical Therapy Program have been taking part in their advanced pediatric summer elective at Joya.
Joya Physical Therapists Miranda Frederick and Kristen Santos facilitate the course. And they say there’s just no substitute for the hands-on experience that comes with working with children with different abilities.
“The best part is helping to build their confidence and clinical skills in working with young children,” said Santos. “It can be intimidating at first learning how to handle a child compared to an adult patient while also learning to work with and educate parents and caregivers. I feel like Joya is a fun and exciting environment that children and their families enjoy coming to so the fact we can share our space and provide a learning experience for the future of pediatric physical therapists is a fun opportunity.”
Over the length of the course, the students have worked in teams with four of Joya’s current families, immersed in a unique learning environment.
“We provide a lot of diverse learning opportunities outside of the main group project including hearing from orthotists/prosthetists, visiting Shriners’ gait lab, and visual demonstration lab of age expected skills of real infants of varied ages through the first year of development,” said Santos. “It’s been beneficial to have time to reflect with the students after every patient session on what things went well and what they want to improve on.”
The students admit they had no idea what to expect coming into this. But the future PTs got in the “deep end” on day one, by diving into the evaluation process and getting to work with kids right away.
“It’s a really cool way to apply what we’ve been learning,” said Renee Woods.
Woods joined fellow second-year PT students Casey Larson and Alex Crandall in working with 2-year old Bella.
“It’s been a great experience,” said Crandall. “Especially with pediatrics, with a child like Bella who’s gone through so much in her short life, yet she’s so motivated and happy and willing to learn…it’s really fulfilling.”
The students say while PT is always challenging work, working with little ones isn’t as difficult as they imagined, because with kids, they are just playing.
“They get real hands-on experience from the best teachers around – our Joya kids and families,” said Lead Joya PT Miranda Frederick. “It’s an opportunity for them to get a taste of what early intervention looks like. It’s also such a great experience for the kids and families – they love getting to work with new people and the students are bringing new ideas to help work on the family’s goals.”
Frederick has goals for the PT students too. And as they wrap up the course, she’s impressed by their progress.
“My goal is always to have the students feel more confident and ready for their rotations than when they walked in to the first day of class,” said Frederick. “It’s been so fun to see their confidence and clinical reasoning skills improve over the last four weeks. And to see the progress the kiddos have made as well!”
