Teamwork Improves Child Growth and Development

Southwest Health Employees That Care (ETC) members (from left) Elizabeth Welsh, OT, Caiti Droessler, Cathy Helbing, RT, Dan Rohrbach, CEO, Mike Klein with Mound City Bank Trust Officer Lori Bahr.

The Ann & Leo Stoll Jr. Charitable Trust (managed by Mound City Bank) and Southwest Health’s Employees that Care (ETC) Committee teamed up recently to jointly fund the purchase of a new pediatric therapeutic swing.

Therapeutic swings help with a seemingly endless list of pediatric growth and development concerns. Occupational Therapist Elizabeth Welsh, OT, appreciates the addition of the swing as a treatment option for her little patients. “Swinging helps children to learn sensory integration, or in other words, the body’s ability to organize its experiences with touch, movement, body awareness for balance, sight, sound, and the pull of gravity.”

The swing offers an ideal treatment approach for sensory integration and vestibular therapy (chronic dizziness and vertigo caused by inner ear disorders) essential for proper childhood development. The swing is a fun and interactive tool that allows children to work on core balance and muscle tone.

“Some children lack body awareness, appear clumsy, or have anxiety the swing can help remedy,” explains Welsh. “It even helps children with speech by increasing brain activity and helping kids express themselves.”

The gifts from Southwest Health employees and from the Stoll Fund enabled the Southwest Health Rehab Team to add this tool and bring yet another dimension of treatment for their youngest, most vulnerable patients.