Heartspring has been serving individuals with disabilities throughout the lifespan for over 75 years.

Well known for its residential school, which provides education, therapy and care for children with severe disabilities from across the nation, Heartspring is also home to Pediatric Services, the organization’s outpatient therapy center, which provides services to children with a wide range of disabilities and delays in Wichita and surrounding communities.

Outpatient services available to children at Heartspring include audiology, speech and language therapy, psychological services, occupational therapy, and physical therapy. These services are in place to help children with a diagnosis including but not limited to autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, torticollis, plagiocephaly, speech delays, feeding difficulties, fine and gross motor skill delays and spina bifida.

At Heartspring, therapists begin helping children as young as a few days old and continue services as long as needed or recommended by the child’s doctor. Some congenital and genetic disorders may require therapy soon after birth. Other types of disabilities, such as a speech language deficit may not need therapy until the child is older. Speech and language disorders make up 45% of the population served in Heartspring Pediatric Services. The ability for children to communicate and socialize with others in their environment is crucial in overall development. Communication begins at first glance between mother and newborn, and grows from eye gaze, smiling, laughing, cooing, and babbling, to those first words. When these developmental milestones do not occur, and speech and language does not develop by age two; children are at risk for further delays in other areas of development.

Through the Heartspring Hearing Center, children and adults receive audiology services that include hearing evaluations, video otoscopy and wax removal and management. Clients are also able to purchase a full range of hearing aids and listening devices. Bi-annual open house events are open to the public.

In 2006, the United States Census Bureau estimated that 3,144 boys and 795 girls ages 5-15 in Sedgwick County were identified with at least one disability. The therapies received through Heartspring Pediatric Services and the Heartspring Hearing Center assist over 600 children and 1,000 adults every year, helping them become more independent in their everyday lives and in the community.