Pediatric rehabilitation services

Pediatric rehabilitation services are customized to your child’s individual goals, as well as any needs identified by family, school and health care providers. Pediatric rehabilitation services include:

• occupational therapy
• physical therapy
• speech-language therapy
• psychological services

All of these experts are trained and empowered to make lives work for kids through play.

Occupational therapists focus on:

• strength and fine motor coordination such as reaching, grasping and writing
• sensory processing, including sensitivity training to touch, movement and noise
• daily living skills such as feeding and dressing
• cognitive skills, including problem-solving, organization, attention and ability to follow directions
• wheelchair positioning and special-equipment needs

Speech-language pathologists focus on:

• improving the ability to produce speech, put words together and understand language
• evaluating and treating swallowing problems and feeding disorders
• oral-motor treatments
• voice disorders
• stuttering
• sign language and other communication systems
• cognitive skills, including memory and reasoning

Physical therapists focus on:

• flexibility of muscles and joints
• balance and coordination skills, such as standing on one foot or kicking a ball
• gross motor skills such as rolling, crawling, running, jumping
• posture, positioning and equipment needs

• ADD/ADHD
• apraxia
• arthritis
• autism,
• brachial plexus injury
• brain injury
• cerebral palsy
• chronic illness
• cleft palate
• concussion
• congenital torticollis
• delay in milestones or motor development
• delay in speech, language or articulation
• feeding and swallowing disorders
• genetic syndromes, such as Down syndrome and fragile X syndrome
• hearing loss
• neurological conditions
• orthopedic injuries/surgeries
• pelvic floor/bowel and bladder incontinence
• pervasive developmental disorders (PDD)
• physical disabilities
• prematurity
• scoliosis/hyperkyphosis 
• sensory processing disorders
• torticollis/plagiocephaly
• voice disorders
• weight management

Does insurance cover the cost of therapy?

Every insurance plan is different. Check with your insurance carrier's customer service department prior to your initial treatment session to learn about the benefits and exclusions of your plan for hospital-based rehabilitation services.

Questions regarding insurance coverage, copayment responsibility and plan exclusions should be directed to your insurance company's customer service department.

What should my child wear to therapy?

Children should wear loose, comfortable, active-wear clothing, and have tennis shoes available. Some play activities are messy, so dress your child appropriately. If one of the goals of therapy is to improve your child's dressing skills, a change of clothing may be appropriate to bring to therapy for your child to practice these skills.

Who should attend therapy?

Family members and caregivers directly involved with your child are welcome to attend therapy sessions. It’s important for caregivers to be involved in learning about play activities that are beneficial for your child. Children who have actively involved families have the best outcomes in therapy intervention. You should plan to be present for all or part of your child’s therapy appointment.

Due to the privacy of all of our patients, only one or two family members should attend your child's treatment session at a given time. This allows all of our patients to have privacy and an optimal treatment environment while supporting safety and infection control concerns as well.

How do the therapists make treatment recommendations?

After an evaluation, therapists–along with caregivers–are better able to create goals and a treatment plan. The initial plan may focus on a single area of development. The treatment plan considers the child's current abilities and needs; parent and family goals, schedules and other interventions the child may be receiving.

Therapy may be scheduled as:

• a limited time period, but with increased intensity to target the needs prioritized in the evaluation process
• Weekly ongoing therapy
• Intensive short-term treatment

Questions about scheduling

We encourage regular and timely attendance at all scheduled therapy appointments. Children make better progress toward their goals when they attend appointments consistently.

Our goal is to provide excellent rehabilitation services and maintain appointment availability to serve all children and families who need our services.

Please review your child's appointment report for appointment confirmation. You should receive a copy of this itinerary on your first scheduled therapy appointment. You may also view scheduled appointments in your child’s Allina Health account. You may request an itinerary report at any time from our schedulers/receptionists.

How do I know how many appointments to schedule?

You and your therapist will discuss your child's plan of care, and your therapist will document it in the progress note to your doctor. If you have signed a release of information, you may request a copy of your child's progress note from the hospital's medical records department. This plan of care will help you know how many appointments should be scheduled. You will want to make sure that your plan of care is reflected in the number of appointments scheduled on your itinerary.

For example, if your therapist recommends weekly appointments for two months, your itinerary should include eight visits. If your insurance plan requires prior authorization, the insurance provider will also receive a copy of your child's plan of care. Your child will be scheduled only for the number of visits that are authorized by your insurance company.

How do I schedule or change an appointment?

Once the appropriate frequency and duration of treatment for your child has been determined after his/her evaluation, you can schedule appointments by calling Courage Kenny Kids directly. Depending on your insurance coverage, your first therapy appointment may not be scheduled until after we receive prior authorization from your insurance company. Insurance prior authorization may take 10-30 days.

If your child needs weekly treatment sessions, we recommend that they be scheduled on the same day, at the same time, with the same therapists. This consistency is optimal for families, children and treatment outcomes. If your child needs therapy from more than one therapy discipline, we will make every effort to schedule appointments consecutively. When your child's therapist is ill or on vacation, we will make every effort to maintain your child's treatment schedule. This may include a substitute therapist or rescheduling your child's appointment with another therapist. We will notify you of any changes as soon as possible. You can help us recognize any inconsistencies in your child's schedule by regularly checking your child's itinerary in their Allina Health account.

If you need to reschedule an appointment, please let us know as soon as possible. A 24-hour notice is preferred. Every effort will be made to reschedule for another day. Call Courage Kenny Kids directly to reschedule.

Under what circumstances should I cancel my child's therapy appointment?

Please cancel your child’s appointment by calling Courage Kenny Kids as soon as possible if your child has:

• Two or more occurrences of vomiting or abnormally loose stools within 24 hours of the scheduled appointment
• A fever of 100 degrees or higher (before fever-reducing medication is given) within 24 hours of appointment
• Chicken pox, when child is contagious or lesions are not crusted over
• Green or thick discharge from nose
• Pink eye or other bacterial infection that has not completed 24 hours of antibiotic treatment
• Lice, ringworm, scabies or bedbugs that have not been treated

What is Courage Kenny Kids' attendance policy?

If you fail to show or you cancel in with than 24 hours’ notice for two or more scheduled appointments, you will receive a letter regarding our no-show and cancellation policy. If you miss a third appointment or cancel with less than 24 hours’ notice a third time, we may cancel your child’s remaining appointments. Your child may then return for a re-evaluation after receiving a new order from his or her physician.

We understand that illness may result in last-minute cancellations. We do not want you to bring a child to therapy when he or she is ill. It is in the best interest of all our patients and staff that children who are ill not attend therapy. If your child is ill over a period of time and this creates the need for last-minute cancellations, please ask to speak to your child's therapist, who will then work with you individually to determine the best course of action for ongoing therapy and scheduled appointments.

What happens if my child will arrive late for his/her scheduled appointment?

In fairness to other patients, if you arrive more than 20 minutes late for your child’s appointment, we may not be able to provide the full length of the treatment session. We may also request that you reschedule the appointment.