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We believe in every child’s potential, and combine “out of the box” thinking with aquatic therapy to help them push past their boundaries and achieve even more.
Parents tell us they feel overwhelmed, never really feeling seen, heard, or getting the answers they need to help their child grow. As a parent of a child with developmental challenges, we understand the obstacles you face, and we’re here to empower you and your child to overcome them.
We don’t put anyone in a box. We treat your child as the individual they are, working alongside you to give them the skills, confidence, and inspiration he or she needs to live their best life.
We use pediatric aquatic therapy to help your child develop skills more quickly than they would with land-based therapy alone. We give you the choice of focusing on PT, OT and/or SLT during our sessions. As he or she gains confidence in the water, we transfer the skills they learn in the pool onto dry land. It’s the secret to our success and helps to grow their self-esteem as much as their ability.
Your child will work one-to-one with the same therapist or two therapists (one in the pool and one on land) throughout his or her week. They’ll feel more relaxed, secure and confident working consistently with the same team member each day, allowing them to make more progress and have more fun.
With the water supporting your child’s body weight, they can enjoy a sense of freedom and move in ways that just aren’t possible on land. We use fun, playful exercises to make the work feel easy, so development happens naturally, building strength, coordination, endurance, balance, range of motion and more.
Learning to control breathing in aquatic therapy is also massively beneficial in helping your child improve breath control on land and for speech development.
Being in a beautiful, warm outdoor pool, surrounded by palm trees in a sunny, relaxed environment feels much less intimidating than a typical medical center. Our children love coming to their therapy sessions, to the point where they often don’t want to leave again!
We include one land-based therapy session each day to continue building on the progress we’re making in the pool and develop more skills, keeping your child focused and engaged with various games and activities which make the therapy fun.
These may take place inside our therapy room, in the gym, or outside around the facility, depending on your child’s abilities and needs.
You can also add on time with Trexo. This robotic walker supports your child so they can experience walking, explore different places and take part in everyday activities which would usually be off-limits to them. Too many times, children with disabilities are told they can’t or they won’t. With Trexo, they can, and they will.
Parents of children who’ve used Trexo during our weeks have told us it’s been a game changer. Not only can the robot help improve muscle strength, coordination, alignment and help develop increased weight bearing, but parents also tell us
it improves bowel movements (no more constipation), breathing and sleep patterns.
If your child can’t yet sit, roll or stand, Trexo can help them walk for the first time, using sensory stimulation to help build new neural pathways, supporting their ongoing development.
The robot’s also ideal if your child needs to improve their gait and or heel-toe striking, whether they walk with or without walking aids.
Disability into
possibility
Disability into possibility
We involve you in the sessions and encourage you to ask questions throughout the week. Our goal is to empower you with all the information and resources you need to feel confident making progress when you get back home.
We’re constantly evolving and devising playful activities to give you, creating a daily therapy routine that is fun for all the family, not stressful.
We’re with you on this journey. You can contact us if you have more questions after your week; we’re always on hand.
The minimum age for all therapy sessions at Swim Lab International is 3. However, we can support you before your first visit if your child’s a little younger.
Your therapy week will be personalized to suit your child’s needs, abilities, and goals, spanning 5 days from Monday to Friday with 2 aquatic therapy and 1 land-based therapy session each day.
On the first day, you’ll have a meet and greet where we get to know you and your child a little better, talking about your goals as a parent and your child’s hopes, dreams and goals for themselves. We then dive into our first sessions to kick off the week.
Although the weeks are intensive, we also make them fun and create a relaxed environment so your child can feel comfortable and fully engage in each session, getting the most out of our time together. When therapy feels like a game, it’s more motivating, and the development happens more naturally. We often find our children don’t want to go home!
We also welcome you as a parent to ask questions and give you the knowledge and resources you need to keep making even more progress back home.
The fee for your week includes all sessions, planning, access to therapists, pre- and post-visit contact, access to the training facilities (for your child only) during our sessions, and additional time to allow for changing.
Once you’ve made your booking, we’ll ask you to fill in a form giving us a good overview of your child’s current abilities, needs and goals so we can assign the therapist who’ll be the best fit.
We do this early on to help us plan our team schedule, so you have access to the right therapist or therapists at the right time.
8 weeks before your program, we begin the more in-depth planning. We’ll ask for more detailed information, covering all aspects of life from daily routines, information from consultants and about any existing therapy or programs you’re involved in, any carers you have, support requirements, and so on. We may also ask for reports from your home-based therapists or coaches to help us tailor make your program to target your specific needs at this moment in time.
Even if you’re a repeat client, we ask for this information, as your child’s abilities, needs and goals will change in-between visits. We want to make sure we know where he or she is now, and what milestone we’re working towards on our way to their big goals.
The team will all be involved in creating your program, bringing together our combined expertise, but one of our Paediatric therapists will take the lead for your week and be your main point of contact should you have any questions at all.
We have a range of facilities and equipment available to us, enabling us to adapt the sessions to suit each and every child we work with. This applies to both the aquatic and land-based therapy sessions.
Yes, absolutely, all sessions are one-to-one, so your child has the therapist’s full attention during their time together. All our sessions are tailored to help your child develop their abilities and work towards the goals we’ve set together.
Wherever possible, you’ll have the same therapist throughout your week with us. However, you may have one therapist for all your sessions or one for the land-based therapy and another for the aquatic therapy.
We allocate therapists best suited to your child’s needs and goals. That could mean that more than one team member will be involved in your therapy, to make sure your child gets the most out of each session.
We’ll give you a program to continue using once you get back home, with fun therapy activities created using easy-to-find equipment from stores like Ikea and Walmart for a reasonable price.
During the week, we’ll explain everything we’re doing, giving you all the know-how and tools you need to continue making progress and pushing boundaries.
If you have more questions once you’re home, you can reach out to the lead therapist who’s been taking care of you and your program. We also love to get feedback on your progress, so we can join you in celebrating each milestone on the way to reaching your big goals.
It’s not unusual for a child to make more progress with us than they would in six to twelve months of conventional outpatient therapy. However, even though your child is likely to see a great improvement, making big changes to your child’s life will take time, patience and ongoing support.
We work closely with you, as well as any other therapists or consultants who may be supporting your child at home, to keep pushing to new levels of ability and beyond. We’ll give you activities and fun exercises to do when you go home, so you can reach your current goals.
When you come back for your next intensive therapy week, we’ll create a new treatment plan to help you push on to the next level, and the next, over time helping your child reach their full potential.
Many of our children love the aquatic therapy so much it turns into a real passion for swimming, which they continue with in their teenage years.
The fee for our intensive therapy weeks is $2000 per week.
If you’re a resident of Florida state, you may be eligible to apply for the Florida Empowerment Scholarship for Unique Abilities to subsidize the cost of your therapy weeks.
The fee for the week includes all staffing, aquatic therapy and land-based therapy sessions, equipment, access to facilities for the child we’re working with during our sessions, all pre and post-communication, planning, research, and activities to continue on with when you return home.
Weeks are released on July 4th each year for the following year. However, if you missed that first chance to book, you can join the waiting list and you’ll be notified as soon as dates become available. Once you reserve and pay for your week, you’ll receive a confirmation email from us which also advises about booking your travel and accommodation nearby.
You’ll then be asked to fill in a more detailed registration form and send videos or photos to demonstrate your child’s current abilities and skills, so we can match their needs to a dedicated therapist who’ll work closely with you both before and during your time with us.
