It is increasingly popular for children and adolescents to participate in multiple sports, some training as many as up to 20 hours per week in pre-teen years and as young as aged 6-8 years old.

Chartered Physiotherapists have the knowledge to manage orthopaedic conditions, injury prevention guidelines and specific physiologically characteristics. Chartered Physiotherapists are trained in treating children as young as a few months old for any of the musculoskeletal, biomechanical or developmental problems that can occur.

It cannot be under estimated the importance of activity at a young age. However, with this comes a risk of injury. This risk of injury is due to unique factors related to growth – such as non linearity of growth (body segments grow at different rates – eg head trunk and limbs), adolescent growth spurt, maturity associated variations (children of the same age maturing faster), and unique response to injury (children can suffer the same as an adult with injury, however some significant differences in jury in the child can occur due to the structures of their growing bone).

Some specific growth related issues are Ogood Schlatters Disease, severs disease, perthes disease, scoliosis.

An adult is required to accompany a child attending physiotherapy treatment.