Muscle Tone & Early Development

When treating a child with CP, part of a pediatrician’s job is assessing and treating children with abnormal tone difficulties, as well as other muscular-skeletal problems. From around the age of two years, kids start to develop difficulties with muscle tone that can have an impact on their hip development. Some are not sitting or standing and so they can have difficulties that may need earlier treatment compared to other children who progress on to walking either independently or with support.

Around this age, children want to get moving. They get up from playing on the floor and they want to move or play at a table. They may need some support in doing that and they may need some specialized equipment to do it.

Another thing that happens at around the age of two or three years is this rapid development in language and communication skills. Children go from largely communicating only with their parents and caregivers to interacting with their peers. Something else that happens at around the age of two or three is an explosion in their play abilities and skills. They go from parallel play to integrated play, and it's critically important that you can integrate any child in with their peers in play, which helps them explore. After all, play is a child's occupation.