Anel van der Merwe

Children's Physiotherapist,
Director of Children in Motion

Anel is the founder and Director of Children in Motion Ltd.

Anel was driven to be a children’s Physiotherapist from an early age and her work is not only a job, it’s a lifelong passion. Anel’s extensive experience and training, and her love for working with children and young people are immediately evident in her therapy sessions. She has a refined ability to assess posture and movement patterns in children, and as a result produce highly effective outcomes. The children, however, just think they are playing!

Anel has over 22 years experience in the treatment of children and young people with various conditions and she has worked in South Africa, Ireland, UK, and as an expert witness. Graduating in 1998, her final year research project at the University of Pretoria (South Africa) was a study of children with developmental coordination dysfunction (DCD). Her career has led her to work within the acute hospitals, special needs schools, the private sector and the Irish Health System. In 2003 she started working at the Bobath Centre in London, a specialist Therapy Centre for Children with Cerebral Palsy, where she became a clinical specialist and took part in the Bobath Tutor Training Programme. Anel has always taken a great interest in research and during her time at the Bobath Centre her commitment led her to produce a Case Study titled ‘Investigating functional outcomes following a program to strengthen the gastrocnemius-soleus complex in an adolescent boy with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy’.

Anel has a special interest in working with babies with developmental delay and children/young people whose difficulties are complex and neurological in nature, such as Cerebral Palsy, Syndromes, Muscular Dystrophies and Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders. She also takes great pleasure in teaching and delivering workshops to Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Speech and Language Therapists, Schools and Parents.

Anel has taken further courses and qualifications in:

• Foundation and advanced Bobath Courses (including early assessment and intervention of Babies and Young Children with Cerebral Palsy & Upper Limb intervention and management in Cerebral Palsy) and completed part of the tutor training programme
• Foundation Movement Analyses and Education Strategy (MAES) course by Jean-Pierre Maes
• Accredited in the administration and scoring of standardised outcome measures including the Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM), Quality FM, Assisting Hand Assessment (AHA),
• Splinting in Neurology for Adults and Children
• Foundation and Advanced paediatric gait analyses and orthotic management by Elaine Owen
• Prechtl’s Method on the Qualitative Assessment of General Movements
• Basic, advanced and advanced paediatric Kinesiotex taping
• Aquatic therapy in paediatric neurological dysfunction
• APPI Pilates Matwork 1 and Pilates for children and young people

Anel has outstanding clinical skills and is exceptionally dedicated to the children and families under her care.

She is a member of:

• Health Care Professions Council (HCPC)
• Chartered Society of Physiotherapists (CSP)
• British Association of Bobath Trained Therapists (BABTT) [former Secretary]
• The Association of Paediatric Chartered Physiotherapists (APCP)