APA Titled Paediatric Physiotherapist

Fiona Elliott is an APA Titled Paediatric Physiotherapist at Total Physiotherapy Manly Vale on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. With more than 20 years of physiotherapy experience, Fiona provides assessment, treatment, and rehabilitation for babies, children, and adolescents with developmental, neurological, musculoskeletal, and complex paediatric conditions. Her areas of expertise include:

• Gross motor delay
• Paediatric Joint Hypermobility and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS)
• Torticollis and plagiocephaly
• Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD)/dyspraxia
• Chronic pain
• Musculoskeletal issue

Fiona completed a Master’s in Advanced Paediatric Physiotherapy and has achieved APA Titling in Paediatric Physiotherapy through the Australian Physiotherapy Association. She is a member of the Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA), the Australian College of Physiotherapists (ACP), and the Sydney Hypermobility Network, an Ehlers-Danlos Society Network of Excellence.

Fiona works with babies, children, adolescents, and their families to help them achieve their movement, developmental, and participation goals. She assesses, diagnoses, and treats a wide range of paediatric conditions, supporting children to improve their physical function, confidence, and independence while participating fully in family life, school, sport, and recreation.

Fiona’s evidence-based, family-centred approach combines detailed assessment, exercise prescription, gentle hands-on physiotherapy, fascial dry needling, visceral manipulation, craniosacral therapy, and tailored rehabilitation programs to improve movement, reduce pain, and optimise long-term outcomes. She commonly sees patients for:

• Developmental concerns, including gross motor delay, delayed milestones, movement difficulties, and supporting babies and young children to achieve age-appropriate motor skills.

• Hypermobility and connective tissue disorders, including joint hypermobility, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, associated pain, instability, fatigue, injuries and movement challenges.

• Infant physiotherapy, including torticollis, plagiocephaly, early movement concerns, and developmental support during infancy.

• Neurological and complex paediatric conditions, including cerebral palsy, rare genetic syndromes, chronic pain, migraine, vertigo, rumination, and functional neurological disorders.

• Paediatric musculoskeletal conditions, including growing pains, temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction, scoliosis, toe walking, cervicogenic headache, costochondritis, movement-related pain including Severs and Osgood Schlatter Disease, and post-fracture rehabilitation to support participation in sport, school, and everyday activities.

• Paediatric rheumatological conditions such as Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA).

Fiona has worked across a broad range of physiotherapy settings, including Sydney Children’s Hospital Randwick, private paediatric physiotherapy, neurological physiotherapy, hand therapy, chronic pain management, musculoskeletal physiotherapy, and sports physiotherapy. This breadth of experience allows her to provide comprehensive care for children with complex presentations while supporting families throughout their rehabilitation journey.

As Senior Paediatric Physiotherapist, Fiona contributes to clinical excellence, practice development, and mentoring junior physiotherapists in paediatric physiotherapy.