Starfish Therapies

A pediatric therapy company operating in San Francisco and the greater Bay Area. We provide physical, occupational, speech and aquatic therapy services in the most beneficial and convenient setting for you and your child, including our clinic, currently located in Burlingame, your home, school or daycare.

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Encouraging Rolling – From Back to Stomach

February 7, 2012 by Stacy Menz

I’ve already addressed rolling in a previous post, as well as if you should be concerned if your child isn’t rolling yet, but I wanted to provide a video for some visuals on ways to encourage rolling in your child.  This video addresses helping your child to roll from their back onto their stomach.  Its important that your child learn to activate their flexor muscles (abs) to assist with rolling as opposed to throwing their head back to use extension to initiate rolling.  Using a toy or object that your child is interested and engaged in will encourage them to track it visually which they will follow with their eyes, head and then body as you move it to just over their head.  They will also try to reach for it which will further bring their abs into it as well continue the motion in the direction of the roll.  They also need to bring their leg and hip over which can complete the motion onto their belly.  In the beginning they usually need some extra help at the hip to guide them towards their belly, as well as to prevent them from falling right back onto their backs.  Don’t help too much at the hip because they need to start figuring out how much muscle activity they need as well as how far to continue the action (so they don’t fall back) and how to stabilize.  All of the trial and error is great opportunities for them to develop motor planning and work on movement exploration.  Once they are on their belly often their arm can get stuck under their body. If you tickle at their pecs (front of the shoulder) sometimes you can encourage them to pull their arm out.  Often they will figure out ways to maneuver their body until they can get the arm out from underneath them.

One final thing, make sure you help them practice rolling to both the left and the right so that they can maximize their mobility as well as develop their strength equally on both sides.

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Filed Under: Developmental Milestones Tagged With: coordination, developmental delay, education, exercise, gross motor development, kids, moms, motor planning, physical therapy, rolling, Starfish Therapies, strengthening

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Our family moved to the bay area 6 years ago, and Starfish Therapies have been a part of our family ever since. Everyone at the clinic is caring and warm. The owner always looks for ways to improve the clinic and the services provided. The therapists are patient, enthusiastic, and know how to motivate the kids to do their best. Even after moving more than an hour away from the clinic, we kept going back to Starfish for intensive therapy sessions every summer! We cannot thank Starfish Therapies enough for helping my daughter to get stronger and to become more independent over the years!”

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  BURLINGAME / MAIN CLINIC
  1541 Old Bayshore Highway
  Burlingame, CA 94010


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  (located in KidSpace)
  3401 Mission St.
  San Francisco, CA 94110


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  3825 El Camino Real
  Palo Alto, CA 94306


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  30 Avenue Portola, Suite 200 C & D
  Half Moon Bay, CA 94018

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