Norton Children’s offers inpatient and outpatient physical, occupational and speech therapy to children needing rehabilitation services. Our licensed therapists evaluate and treat children of all ages, from infants through young adults, for a wide range of injuries and conditions.

Physical therapy

Physical therapy services include evaluation and therapeutic activities for gross motor skills development, including posture, balance, coordination, strength, mobility, positioning and alignment (seating). Whether due to an injury, developmental delay or other medical condition, our pediatric-trained therapists can improve a child’s functional outcomes and abilities using evidence-based techniques and state-of-the-art equipment.

Physical therapy services include:

• Balance and coordination training
• Gait analysis and mobility training, including partial weight-bearing treadmill training
• Gross motor skills development and strengthening
• Neuromuscular education with the use of neuromuscular electrical stimulator and functional electrical stimulator
• Wheelchair assessment

Occupational therapy

Occupational therapy services include evaluation and therapeutic activities for development of fine, sensory and visual motor skills. Our pediatric-trained therapists incorporate strategies to improve a child’s functional and social behaviors in the home, school and community.

Occupational therapy activities include:

• Fine motor strengthening and coordination, including handwriting skills
• Self-care, including dressing, feeding and grooming skills
• Sensory processing and modulation
• Visual-motor development
• Motor planning
• Adaptive play and equipment
• Bracing and splinting

Speech therapy

Our pediatric speech therapists provide evaluation and therapeutic activities that enhance the development of feeding and communication skills. Formal standardized testing, interactive play, social interventions and other modalities allow our therapists to determine a child’s functional level of communication and swallowing abilities.

Speech therapy services include:

• Articulation of speech sounds
• Augmentative and alternative communication training
• Cognitive development
• Expressive language training (communicating thoughts through words and sentences)
• X-ray swallow studies for feeding, chewing and swallowing disorders
• Language comprehension, understanding concepts, following directions
• Reading and phonics
• Resonance, including the use of nasometry and X-ray speech studies
• Social skills play and community interactions
• Voice and vocal cord dysfunction training

The Norton Children’s difference

With a 125-year presence in Louisville, Norton Children’s is a leader in pediatric care across Kentucky and Southern Indiana, providing an expanded footprint that includes:

• Norton Children’s Hospital– The hospital works closely with University of Louisville specialists and Frazier Rehab Institute’s Pediatric Program to provide rehabilitation services to our young patients. Norton Children’s Hospital is the region’s only full-service, free-standing pediatric hospital and Louisville’s only Level I Pediatric Trauma Center. It also has one of the largest Level IV (highest level) neonatal intensive care units in the country.
• Numerous regional outpatient centers and extensive pediatrician and pediatric specialistoffices throughout the area.
• Norton Women’s & Children’s Hospital– The only women’s hospital in Louisville, providing care dedicated to the needs of women and children.
• Norton Children’s Medical Center– A unique regional outpatient facility designed “Just for Kids,” brings pediatric care to northeastern Jefferson County and the surrounding area.

Norton Children’s offers specialized programs and services, including:

• Norton Children’s Cancer Institute, affiliated with the University of Louisville, and the Addison Jo Blair Cancer Care Center, which is one of the oldest oncology programs in the U.S. and continuously accredited by the American College of Surgeons’ Commission on Cancer.
• Norton Children’s Heart & Vascular Institute, affiliated with the University of Louisville, a pioneer in pediatric cardiothoracic surgery. Norton Children’s heart transplant surgeons performed Kentucky’s first heart transplant in a newborn in 1986, making the hospital the second site in the United States for infant transplants. Norton Children’s Hospital will be home to the Jennifer Lawrence Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (expected completion in 2019).
• Pediatric neurology and neurosurgery, including a Level 3 epilepsy center
• Orthopedic surgery and rehabilitation
• The Wendy Novak Diabetes Center