About our Children's Rehabilitation Center (CERC) Services

We opened the doors to our Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Centre (CERC) in 2013, to help us provide the best specialized possible care for children. Our goal from the outset was to provide bespoke assessment, treatment and interventions for children, to enable them to live the most independent life possible regardless of their conditions.

Our team of pediatric specialists provides comprehensive therapy programmes for babies, children and young adults across a number of areas. This includes physical therapy, hydrotherapy, speech pathology, counselling/behavior therapy and occupational therapy. Our treatment programs focus on setting specific and individualized goals to ensure a child’s maximum level of function is achieved.

CERC, which is based in Hawally, works with children and their parents and caregivers to evaluate and treat a broad range of child related conditions and issues, including:

Developmental delays, including delayed walking, crawling and delays in speech development
Abnormal skeletal development, including spinal or extremity involvement such as clubfoot, torticollis and hip pathology
Sports injuries, such as joint trauma, or muscle and ligament tears
Traumatic injuries, such as those resulting from motor vehicle accidents
Post-operative rehabilitation and burns
Preterm infants
Cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation
Speech issues, including articulation, phonation, fluency, resonance and voice
Language problems, including receptive and expressive language phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics, language processing, pre-literacy and phonological awareness
Attentional deficits and behavioral issues
Psychological concerns, including academic problems, anxiety/worry and low mood

Our team also works closely with parents and caregivers to help ensure therapy continues outside of the clinical environment where possible, educating them on how to manage their child’s condition and providing them with practical knowledge on specific treatment methods they could implement themselves at home.

At CERC, we are fully aware that medical treatment of any kind, and rehabilitative therapy especially, can prove to be quite overwhelming for a young child. Therefore, we do our utmost to treat children with tender care and patience, working hard to make the therapy experience pleasant and fun for the child. We always strive to adhere to a “whole-person” approach, implementing the best treatment methods to ensure the child’s physical, emotional and mental health and wellness.

Physiotherapy

Working towards improving a child’s balance, coordination, strength, range of motion, posture and alignment; through strengthening exercises, developmental activities and a range of movement exercises for functional independence

Hydrotherapy

Using heat and the buoyancy of water to ease muscle pain and promote relaxation to help normal movement and function that would otherwise be impossible out of the water. Exercise against the resistance of the water can improve muscle strength, co-ordination, endurance and balance, as well as improve blood circulation and reduce swelling. The unique environment of a heated pool is a fantastic form of therapy for children of all ages, making it especially useful to develop functional skills and independence.

Occupational therapy

Working towards developing a child’s fine motor skills, coordination, sensory and perceptual motor processing, and cognitive functioning, as well as their everyday skills.

Speech-language therapy/pathology

Working towards developing a child’s overall communication skills, including the understanding and use of language, speech intelligibility (sound production, or articulation), fluency and speech patterns (phonation, resonance, pitch, intonation, voice); as well treating feeding and swallowing difficulties, and working to improve overall social communication skills.

Psychological services

Working towards developing a child’s concentration skills, social skills and coping strategies through counselling and behavior modification. We also offer several screenings and assessments, including: autism screening, functional emotional assessment (FEA), applied behavior analysis (ABA), social, emotional and academic interventions, and support testing (IQ, ADHD/ADD, and learning difficulties). Our team also provides parenting support.