The Center provides services to children from their birth till the end of puberty. Our goal is to the development of their abilities in order to ameliorate the quality of their lives.
The Center is staffed with experienced personnel in children’s therapy in our attempt to continuously improve our services. We also take diligent care in order to provide a modern, pleasant and safe environment for the children and the Center is equipped with the latest fire safety equipment.
“Thelisi Gia to Paidi” with Social Insurance Institutes.
Charalampos Chatzis, MCSP, NDT, SRP
Physiotherapist – Occupational Therapist
Graduate of Teesside University, England
“Nothing is impossible for those who have a will…”
Aristotle
Why is my child not paying attention to me (is disobedient) and does not sit still?
The most common cause for that is that your child suffers from some type of dysfunction that prevents them from limiting their reaction to the sensory stimuli within the normal limits, that is, to control themselves in order to respond according to the expectations of any given social environment (sensory regulation). The sensory experiences include touch, movement, body awareness, vision, hearing, taste, smell and gravity. The process followed by the brain in order to organize and interpret these experiences is called sensory integration (S.I.). Sensory integration provides the basis for future learning and behavior. For most children, sensory integration develops within the framework of pre-school children’s activities. This procedure results naturally in the ability of motor programming and in the ability to adapt to the incoming stimuli. For some children, however, sensory integration does not develop to a satisfactory level. When this process is disturbed, children exhibit various developmental, learning and behavioral problems.
How can pediatric physical therapy help?
The aim of pediatric physical therapy is to help children reach their maximum developmental dynamics and be more effective in their everyday activities. Pediatric physical therapy helps to improve fine and gross motor skills, balance, muscle strengthening and scope of movement. Through the improvement of motor skills, children are able to participate in various activities with their peers and become more socially involved, thus gaining. The pediatric physical therapist cooperates closely with the family and show them how important is their role in their child’s rehabilitation process. Through continuous training and advising, he family members become active participants in the therapeutic process, by learning special manipulations that will help them overcome other related problems such as feeding and communication.
What is early intervention?
Early intervention applies to infants and children from birth until the age of 3 and is collective process that involves the engagement of physical therapists, occupational therapists and speech therapists depending on the needs of he baby. It is important for early intervention to be exercised inside a fully equipped centre in order for the therapists to be able to communicate and cooperate with each other. The aim of early intervention is to cure the symptoms or, at least, to improve their manifestation. The plasticity of the brain and the adaptability of the baby’s body help facilitate the work of early intervention.
Parent Counselling
The term “counselling” is used very often nowadays. What does it mean, though? Counselling is a process that focuses on enhancing the psychological well-being of the client, such that the client is then able to solve everyday problems and reach their full potential. This is achieved by a relationship of mutual trust between the counsellor and the client. Against what people may think, the counsellor does not provide the client with advice but rather, helps them to identify the areas that they are facing difficulties with, i.e. the counsellor helps he client to gain self-knowledge.
Counselling can be provided to people of any age, children, teenagers or adults, individually or in groups. It is important, however, for the client to approach the counsellor, that is to communicate to the counsellor their problems. Counselling is applied within a wide framework of context areas (school, work). There are many types of counselling.
One type of counselling is parent counselling, where the client (the parent) communicates to a trained professional and seeks support on issues that trouble him/her about their child. At times, these issues may relate to everyday problems, such as:
Behavioural issues, anger outbursts, disobedience, aggressiveness
Problems in setting boundaries for the child at home
Expression of intense jealousy towards the child’s siblings
Difficulty in befriending their peers
Bad performance at school, learning difficulties etc.
Refusal to study at home.
Counselling may the parents to understand their child’s behaviour, to learn how to manage the problems that arise at home and to improve parent-child communication.
Psychological Support
Children, more than often when growing up, show behavioral problems or emotional disabilities. Such problems may be temporary or they may persist for a longer period, in which case it may be necessary to seek advice from a psychologist or other mental health specialist.
Some of the most common emotional problems in school age children are low self-esteem and stress especially for those children who suffer from learning disorders. Furthermore, a lot of children face difficulties in befriending their peers, thus, they either withdraw or they show aggressiveness. A child may express their distress in many ways (anger, aggressiveness, withdrawal, etc.)
Sometimes, the emotional distress may be temporary and may be overcome after a few counseling sessions with the parents. In other instances, however, it may be necessary for the child itself to attend such sessions. It is very important for the child to form a bonding and trustworthy relationship with the psychologist, in order to be able to express their feelings and to gain self-esteem. The psychologist will also teach the child various social skills that may prove to be helpful for those who face difficulties in interpersonal relationships.
However, if the child is facing serious emotional distress, it may be necessary to seek advice from a psychologist or other mental health specialist specialized in psychotherapy approach.