Good Neighbor Podcast: Frisco

EP #233: The Building Blocks of Movement: How Dr. Amie with Milestones At Play Empowers Parents and Children

• Sophia Yvette

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What makes Dr. Amie Dougherty with Milestones At Play Physical Therapy & Wellness a good neighbor?

When should my baby roll over? Is tummy time really that important? Dr. Amie Dougherty of Milestones at Play Physical Therapy and Wellness answers these questions and more in this enlightening conversation about pediatric physical therapy and early childhood development.

Drawing from nearly 13 years of experience working with children from birth to five years old, Dr. Dougherty shares her unique approach to helping little ones achieve crucial gross motor milestones. Unlike traditional therapy models that often require months of weekly sessions, her proactive, private-pay method empowers parents with the knowledge to support their child's development at home, often requiring just a handful of targeted sessions.

"Development is on a continuum," Dr. Dougherty explains, addressing the anxiety many parents feel when comparing their child to others. She breaks down the "mini milestones" that build toward major achievements like rolling, sitting, crawling, and walking, offering reassurance to concerned parents while emphasizing the importance of symmetrical movement and proper head control along the way.

Perhaps most valuable is Dr. Dougherty's discussion of navigating parenting advice in the digital age. In a world of "Dr. Google" and social media information overload, she advocates consulting specialists directly rather than falling down internet research rabbit holes that often increase parental anxiety without providing accurate solutions. By focusing on parent education and empowerment, Milestones at Play helps families support their children's development without adding to their already full parental to-do lists. Connect with Dr. Amie through Instagram (@MilestonesAtPlay) or her website (www.milestonesatplay.com) to learn about tummy time classes and other valuable resources for your child's developmental journey.

To learn more about Milestones at Play go to:

https://milestonesatplay.com/

Milestones At Play Physical Therapy & Wellness

972-430-3126


Speaker 1:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Sophia Yvette.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a physical therapy and wellness center? Well, one may be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Amy Doherty, with Milestones at Play Physical Therapy and Wellness. Hi, Dr Amy, how are you doing today? Doing well, Thank you for having me. Amazing, amazing. Well, we're so excited to learn all about you and your business. Can you tell us a bit about your company?

Speaker 3:

Yes, so Milestones at Play. Physical Therapy and Wellness. We are a pediatric physical therapy provider so I essentially help little ones so that zero to five years is our ideal client Develop those gross motor skills so that they can be successful playing on the playground and meeting those gross motor skills. So that they can be successful playing on the playground and meeting those gross motor milestones so a lot of tummy time rolling, sitting, crawling, walking and you name it. So I help the little ones achieve those skills and I help guide the parents so that they feel confident in helping their little one, especially with tummy time, meet those gross motor milestones that are so very important to development.

Speaker 2:

Amazing. And so, Dr Doherty, how did you get into this business so?

Speaker 3:

I started as a therapist.

Speaker 3:

Honestly, I wasn't sure I was going to go down the pediatric route, but I had a clinical during school and when I was with the kids in the pediatric setting I was sold. Half the time you were chasing them to tell them to slow down or to focus on certain activities, and they are so resilient and that's what I was drawn to. You know I love working with adults and those types of things, but I also love like Disney movies and chatting about just the things that we did in childhood, and so I feel like I really bond well with my patients and my clients over play. And so when I knew that that was sort of the route for me after grad school, I stuck with it and I think it's been well. It's been, oh gosh, almost 12 years now almost 13 years that I've been working in pediatrics and most of my I feel like it's changed since I'm becoming a mom and so I just have a whole new perspective on it, but I still I think it's connecting with the families. That's what brought me into that pediatric setting.

Speaker 2:

So that's why I'm here. Awesome, are you a new mama?

Speaker 3:

No, I actually have a seven-year-old, so not a new mom, but I feel like we're all trying to figure it out and we're all fumbling and every, every phase is a new phase for all of us. So I'm not a new mom, but we're all still trying to figure it out.

Speaker 2:

Awesome, awesome, and I'm sure working with the little children is always a blast. So, dr Jordi, what are the most common myths or misconceptions?

Speaker 3:

you typically come across in your industry. So I am a private pay provider, so I don't accept insurance. And so, as a private pay provider, a lot of families at first are concerned that I don't take insurance and they're afraid that it's going to be more expensive. And the reality is that's not always the case, and the reality is that's not always the case. So a lot of times, because I'm a private pay provider, I can see my clients before their concern becomes a problem or a delay and we can address it early and therefore we don't need ongoing services. So by tackling it early, we don't need months of therapy, we just need a handful of sessions.

Speaker 3:

And you know, when you look at that from the grand scheme of things, it does and can potentially save you some money. But also it's just the thought of being proactive. Following the insurance model doesn't usually allow us to be proactive as a clinician, but being a private provider it does, and so we can tailor sessions to be more individualized to our families and to exactly what our child needs. And so I find that as a you know, a small business owner and a private practice owner, that is a conversation that I have with families often, and there are ones that are like oh yeah, I get it, you know, and it's just education that we have to educate, and look at the numbers. But when you're proactive, you can actually start early and end sooner than waiting and needing services for a lengthier amount of time.

Speaker 2:

And so, dr Doherty, you said that the services are usually not for a super long amount of time. What about when working with the babies? Is that that same concept?

Speaker 3:

So yeah, so my, my clients and my babies. My model really focuses on empowering the parents and educating them on how they can support their child through development. And so traditional therapy models Often those who do follow the insurance model have weekly or even two therapy sessions a week and it's just this revolving therapy schedule. But what I do is I, you know, I send my families home with education, I prepare them and I empower my families and my clients to work on that, because that's where the magic happens. It's not during that 45 to 60 minute session that I'm having with their kid, it's what happens after and so and outside of our therapy session.

Speaker 3:

So I think most of my clients, if it's a, you know, if it's a gross motor concern, you know, like a side preference, or maybe they're not crawling yet or difficulty rolling, those types of things, you know it's it's sometimes one session, um, to whether I can educate the parents and show them how to help their baby learn, um, and sometimes it's three or four sessions. But a lot of my clients, um, it's sort of a, it's a short term thing, because we get our kids to meet their, their milestones and to um to get their parents concerns answered and then they're off to the races. So it's more about being that, starting early and being proactive. That's when we have or need less therapy sessions.

Speaker 2:

And with the little babies? How long should it take them to roll over?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so typically around anywhere between like four to seven months of age is when it happens. So development is on a continuum, and so it's really hard to not compare your baby to somebody else's. Everybody has their own journey, but what's really important is that we look at our babies to make sure they have symmetry, uh, so like the right and left sides are moving the same, that they have decent head control, um, and that they have all of these I call them mini milestones before they meet the major milestones, um, like rolling, um, that they're meeting those mini ones so that they would get to the major one, and so I think what I do a lot of is educating parents on these mini milestones, so the baby's just not going to up and roll. There's other things that they need to do before they can roll, and so I'm educating the parents on those activities. So we're just building those building blocks so that they can get there successfully.

Speaker 2:

Well, I truly could talk with you about babies all day long, but let's switch gears back to your business. Yeah, please tell our listeners one thing they should remember about milestones at play.

Speaker 3:

So I am generally here just to be a resource for my parents. I like to. So in the age of social media and resources out there, there's so many things that I feel like us as parents, see these days we're like I should be doing that or I shouldn't be doing that, and I think sometimes it creates like information overload, and so I always encourage my parents to just, instead of diving deep and doing research down you know Dr Instagram and Dr Google which can give you some not always accurate information to just ask a professional. And so I've always just encouraged if you have a question, whether it's about post-mortem skills, you know, ask a therapist, a pediatric, physical therapist. If it's about a speech language, ask the speech therapist.

Speaker 3:

So like ask the specialist you know in that field. So that's always something that I encourage. You know, whether it's just with me at Milestones at Play or any other you know setting, but just ask, ask the professional and ask the specialist, and I think you'll find that you'll get those answers and your concerns will be put at rest sooner. So I always encourage that and that's what I strive to do at Milestones at Play is just to be that resource to families to get their answers, get their questions answered, but to also just not create any of that added to-do list and that added stress that comes with being a parent.

Speaker 2:

Most certainly. And where can our listeners go to learn more about Milestones at Play? So you, can go.

Speaker 3:

I'm most active on my Instagram account and that's just at Milestones at Play. You can also find me and the events that I have at our website, which is wwwmilestonesatplaycom. So I do often have like tummy time classes in the community that you can come attend. Sometimes they're free, sometimes there's a small fee, but you can check that out there and you can learn. There's a blog If you want to read about, you know, shoes recommendations or activity recommendations or this and that you can find that all on my website.

Speaker 2:

Well, Dr Amy, I really appreciate you being on the show. We wish you and your business the best moving forward.

Speaker 3:

Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpfriscocom. That's gnpfriscocom, or call 469-221-9345. Thank you.