Doesn't warm water reduce tone? So why use it for low tone?

Warm water relaxes muscles and reduces muscle tone. That is true, and it is about HIGH tone. So if your child has LOW muscle tone, why would a physiotherapist put them in a warm pool at all?

This episode answers that properly. Aquatic physiotherapy, or hydrotherapy as most families call it, is physiotherapy that happens to take place in water. It is not swimming lessons: a swimming teacher is teaching your child to swim, and a physiotherapist is working towards your child's own gross motor goals and using the water as the tool. Both are worth doing, and they are different jobs.

For a child with low tone, the reason to be in the water is not tone reduction. It is two other things. The water gives constant deep pressure all around the body, which builds body awareness, so it becomes easier for a child to feel and activate the muscles they cannot feel on land. And the water carries much of their weight, so a movement that is simply too hard on the floor becomes possible, and strength gets built doing it. Aquatic physiotherapy sessions are exhausting, so expect a short session, take water and a snack, and plan a quiet afternoon.

Then, low muscle tone itself. Muscle tone is not strength. It is readiness, or resistance to movement, and it sits on a spectrum with the optimal range somewhere around the middle. Children with low tone are often slower with gross motor development early on, and they often catch up with their peers in time.

What helps is strategies built around your individual child, from a physiotherapist: waking the muscles up, building body awareness, and a great deal of practice. Honestly stated: those activities help muscles activate faster and stay active longer. They do not permanently change your child's tone. That is not the exercises failing, that is what they do, and it is still worth doing.

Topics covered: aquatic physiotherapy, hydrotherapy for children, low muscle tone, hypotonia, muscle tone vs strength, body awareness, buoyancy, paediatric physiotherapy, gross motor development, early intervention, Campbelltown, Macarthur, NSW.

Read more from Aderet Therapy

• [Benefits of Hydrotherapy](https://aderettherapy.com.au/resources/benefits-of-hydrotherapy/)
• [Understanding Muscle Tone](https://aderettherapy.com.au/resources/muscle-tone-spectrum/)

Sources behind this episode

Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne, Kids Health Info: Low muscle tone. Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne: aquatic physiotherapy information. Aderet Therapy: Benefits of Hydrotherapy.

In this episode

• 00:00 - Intro
• 01:46 - Song: Warm Water
• 03:44 - The effect of water
• 06:54 - Song: Lighter Here
• 09:02 - Low muscle tone
• 12:29 - Song: Every Single Try
• 14:41 - When to seek help

Contact

• Website: [aderettherapy.com.au](https://aderettherapy.com.au)
• Phone: [02 4949 7276](tel:+61249497276)
• Address: Suite 10, 261 Queen Street, Campbelltown NSW 2560

Disclaimer

The voices in this podcast are AI.