Pediatric Pelvic Floor Play Skills: Functional Movements for Children with Pelvic Dysfunction

Mora Pluchino, PT, DPT, PRPC is a Stockton University graduate with a BS in Biology (2007), and a Doctorate in Physical Therapy (2009). Mora's toolkit involves experience in a variety of areas and settings, including working with children and adults, including orthopedics, bracing, neuromuscular issues, vestibular issues, robotics training, and in 2016 she began treating Pelvic Health patients. Mora is active with Herman & Wallace as a Lead TA, faculty, member of the content team, and has written and instructs 3 of her own courses with HW including Pediatric Pelvic Floor Play Skills which is intervention-focused, and does not delve into specific pediatric diagnoses.

“I’m an expert at children’s behavior” said no experienced therapist (or parent or teacher) EVER. Working with kids is one of the most gratifying and frustrating, not to mention mystifying experiences I have ever had. What works for one child sends another into a temper tantrum. What one kid thinks is fun has another whining about how they may die of boredom. Ask the pelvic organ stuffies in my treatment what I’m talking about, they could tell you some stories!

Herman & Wallace has two amazing pediatric courses by Dawn Sandalcidi (Dawn Sandalcidi’s course Pediatric Incontinence and Pelvic Floor Dysfunction) that give such a great foundation to diving intro treating pediatric clients. I’ve taken them both myself and would not have been the clinician, teaching assistant or instructor I am without them. In these classes you can learn all of the diagnoses, latest research and treatment protocols from someone who has been a leader in pediatric pelvic floor therapy for years.

Why then did I feel the need to write a course about pediatrics? Because even with all the most wonderful information in the world – when working with kids, applying that can be really tricky. What if you don’t have a fancy biofeedback machine? What if you are not viscerally trained? What if children (or their parents) terrify you? As a teaching assistant, I received many calls, emails, and chats asking how to APPLY all that information, whether to their own kids or their patients.

If you are already an experienced pediatric therapist, this class is not for you. This class IS for the person who is a pelvic floor provider with pelvic floor skills but doesn’t know what the heck to do when a pediatric patient comes in to see them. This is for the therapist Pinterest-ing play skill ideas and asking on Facebook pelvic floor support groups how to make therapy something children and their parents buy into. It's for the person who wants to help little kids but just needs some basic skills and doesn’t have them in their toolbox. Maybe you’ve been a nanny, babysitter, auntie, or are a parent, but you just need to know what to do clinically.

Did you ever see those memes “do this thing but make it fashion.” Pediatric Pelvic Floor Play Skills embodies the idea of “do pelvic floor therapy with kids but make it look like we’re playing.” So, to set the expectations…there will not be standard biofeedback in this class and there also won’t be a ton of undressed or internal techniques because this is the starter toolbox.

What will be included?

• • Manual techniques - can we teach a parent or child
  • Positions - can we play to stretch or strengthen
  • Extracurriculars - should we encourage
  • How do we approach the colicky baby, the stubborn two-year-old, the chatter preschooler or even scarier…the TWEEN
  • Managing a child’s care team at every age, stage and different settings
  • Activity recommendations, toy suggestions with a purpose, resources for if you need more help

Not sure if this is for you? Here is some feedback from our last class:

“I’ve been a pediatric PT for 26 years and practiced in the home based, school and sensory gym settings primarily until making the jump over to hospital-based outpatient and NICU in the last seven. We’ve been developing the pediatric pelvic program, with the help of our adult pelvic therapists. I jumped in right away when I saw your course, as it seemed a natural progression from the PEDS 1 course that I attended under Dawn Sandalcidi. I was a little hesitant at the online format, as I know I don’t learn as well in that format as I do in person, but I was happily proven wrong. Mora was dynamic and really made the course lively and fun. Thank you for such a great course.”

“I want to start by saying I think it was a great course that was very well put together. I enjoyed the videos demonstrating with all the treatment techniques as I am a visual learner, and this was incredibly helpful.”

“I really enjoyed taking this course and felt that I learned a lot. The way Mora presented patient treatment videos/examples was very helpful.”

To learn more about Pediatric Pelvic Floor Play Skills join Mora in her upcoming course scheduled for March 24, 2024. If you miss the spring course, it is also scheduled for June 29th, and October 20th.