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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From Head to Toe Game

March 8, 2012 by Stacy Menz

     

One of our OT’s found this great game called From Head to Toe: Learn to Move.  The pictures are all done in Eric Carle format which are pretty cool.  I of course had to borrow it to use with some of my kids and as usual I did not read the directions but rather used it in my own way.  We turned all the cards over and we each took turns picking a card (first we rolled a dice to see how many cards we each got to turn over).  Once the kiddo picked the card they turned it over to see what the activity was and then they got to imitate it.  We had fun trying out the different moves and seeing what would come up next.  I actually thought some of the activities would be too easy however, they worked out great.

I was using them with a child who has coordination and motor planning challenges so it was really interesting to watch them look at the picture, hear the words for the action and then try to complete the task.  Simple things that I’ve seen them do needed cuing to perform them correctly.  For instance, when the card read ‘turn your head side to side’ the initial action that came out was the entire body turning side to side.  Once I gave more directions such as ‘just the head’ and demonstrated the action as well, it was a quick transition to the correct action.  I think its so interesting to see how a child who can easily shake their head ‘no’ without moving their whole body when they generate the action on their own, then has motor planning challenges when the task is asked of them.  It just goes to show how there are different processes that occur for spontaneous movement as opposed to movement to a command.  We see this a lot with kids with apraxia that they can easily perform a task such as picking up a block but when asked to perform the same task there are challenges with the movement.

I think this deck of cards was a great way to work on imitation, following directions, looking at pictures and interpreting a direction, and motor planning/coordination.  It was nice because they were fairly simple movements but for kids that have these challenges it gave them an easy way to work on a bigger movement issue.  How to motor plan a task when it is asked, versus being able to do the task spontaneously.

And, don’t forget, there may be more to the game that is even more fun and can draw out more skills however I didn’t actually read the directions so I can try that adventure another day!

Related

Filed Under: Developmental Milestones Tagged With: coordination, games, gross motor development, kids, motor planning

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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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  1541 Old Bayshore Highway
  Burlingame, CA 94010


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  San Francisco, CA 94110


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  Palo Alto, CA 94306


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

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