About Us
We Are Family Friendly
More Than A Gym is a unique, completely family friendly environment, which makes children comfortable to be who they are and bring out their best self. More importantly, we stress how important carry-over to the home, community and school settings are, by providing constant feedback, a detailed care plan and involving families as well as other professionals in each plan. Parents and siblings are welcome to participate in sessions, when appropriate, or they can watch the sessions through our closed circuit HD state-of-the-art camera and tv system from the comfort of the waiting room. Monitoring and rooting for your child’s progress is made easy and encouraged as an important part of learning how to carry-over the session’s activities and ensure continuous gains.
We Are State-of-the-Art
More Than A Gym features a fully equipped gross motor and sensory gym, which is constantly evolving and growing with the latest tools and based on the latest research. Our amazing staff of physical therapists, occupational therapists and speech therapists are also constantly building their techniques based on the latest evidence-based practices and from innovative continuing education courses.
We Are Dedicated
More Than A Gym strives to be the most dedicated resource of knowledge to the families that we service. Use us to ensure your child is able to maximize their strengths and work at their fullest potential, adding to our countless success stories!
Bio
More Than A Gym, Pediatric Therapy and Play Gym was founded by Doctor of Physical Therapy, Yelena Bash Palazzo. Yelena has been practicing in a variety of pediatric settings over the past 10 years. Her experience includes hospital/ acute care, pediatric long term/ subacute care in NYC, as well as school-based and home-based therapy on Long Island. Yelena prides herself on her out-of-the-box thinking in her treatment sessions, constantly keeping up with the latest research and attending continuing education conferences in order to best serve her patients. She bridges the gap between function, motor goals and sensory input, utilizing medical, school and community-based approaches for best carry-over.
Yelena specializes in Kinesio and Leuko taping, strapping, Theratoging, mirror box therapy, treadmill training with biofeedback, NDT (Neurodevelopmental technique), and sensory input techniques. She also has a history of aquatic therapy and is a Certified Infant Massage Instructor.
Group therapy is another passion that drove Yelena to bring More Than A Gym into fruition. Working with children with various abilities for many years, Yelena was inspired by how well they performed when grouped together properly. She began to use strategic groupings of kids in order to encourage greater “play” during tasks, and communication naturally began to evolve, as well as their motor skills. This initial hypothesis has grown into our highly sought after group classes and Yelena could not be any prouder.
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We provide services through Nassau, Suffolk & Queens Early Intervention and CSE, Nassau and Suffolk CPSE, private insurance and private pay.