Child sprained ATFL - physical therapy?

My seven year old, who is our most active of the bunch, has hurt her ankle a couple times in the last couple months. Friday it was bad enough that we took her to urgent care. She had twisted it the night before and the next day it was still swollen and painful to the touch or to put weight on. It's a sports medicine urgent care and the doctor said it was a sprained ATFL. I only happen to remember that because of the acronym he told us, "always the first ligament".

he recommended physical therapy but we've had a couple not work out already and it's kind of annoying. Well I don't want to short change my child, is PT really necessary or can we just follow the good practices like writing her name with her foot, stuff like that?

As I write this, I do feel a little sheepish like "sorry, honey, we would have taken you back to the doctor but it was kind of inconvenient."

Thoughts? 

You said "she has hurt her ankle a couple of times in the last couple of months."  That is a clue.   Something is amiss.   

A good PT will help the healing of the current injury, and hopefully provide instruction on what to strengthen to prevent it from recurring.  A really good PT may spot something wrong that needs attention.

Maybe a few sessions, get the handouts, and if you have the discipline to keep up the work, then stop going and continue from home.

Sorry you had a bad previous PT experience.

YMMV

My step daughter was pigeon toed. Still kind of is, but not nearly as bad. She's spent years doing physical therapy and it really helped, because the other option was to break and reset her hips. 

I've been going once a week since February for my back. It doesn't cost me anything other than gas, so I have no problem going. At first, I thought it was a waste of time. I'd go, lay down for 20 minutes of heat and electricity, then get some barely touching me adjustments. After a few visits to get a baseline, it's really ramped up with stretches and exercises. Every visit I get something new added to the routine, but I'm on my own to do them while I'm there. 

So I would say they're is some value, depending on your time constraints and costs, to at least go and get checked out and a good list of exercises to work on. The fact there have been multiple issues, I would look for one more sports oriented or ankle focused, that should be able to help specifically with the problems going on. There could be a muscle formed wrong or a weird angle in a bone or something that a more general therapist could miss. 

Like all medical professionals, I would suggest getting reviews from people you know after you find out who your insurance will take. A good doctor of any sort is hard to find, so it's really worth checking out the people you can work with.