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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The Un-Block

August 9, 2013 by Stacy Menz

unblock

When we went to the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) conference this year we saw this great toy that one of the vendors was selling.  It’s called the Un-Block.  I of course had to get it because I love any type of building toy and thought it looked like such a novel idea.  (Since I’m a PT, I was crossing my fingers that the OT’s would be able to use it.)  Luckily our OT’s have been using this toy and were able to give me some feedback on what they were using it for.

The biggest thing they said kids had a challenge with was motor planning how to connect the pieces.  Because it is a precise fit and the pieces slide together, many kids found this challenging and required hand over hand assist while working on the motor planning.  A lot of times they just wanted to snap them together (similar to legos) but they won’t connect that way.

Another challenge was lining the pieces up together in order to slide.  Currently the pieces are all the same color so it requires increased use of the visual system to get accurate alignment as well as precision.  Several kids would get it close and then keep attempting in the same spot, so they required assistance to problem solve and make adjustments so that the pieces would fit together.  We talked about that it would be great if the blocks were different colors or had the interlocking parts defined out by a color/boundary.  This is easy enough to add on your own if you think your kids would benefit from this.

This toy also allows kids to work on their grasps, such as the three jaw chuck or pincer grasp, when picking up the pieces and manipulating them such that they fit together.  In addition, the get to work on fine motor control, precision and coordination.

Lastly, they get to have fun with their imagination and build things!

While talking about the pieces being different colors we were also brainstorming that kids could do patterning, or create additional designs, or just get the visual assist that may be needed.

Have any of you played with this toy?  If so, how are you using it?

Related

Filed Under: Developmental Milestones Tagged With: coordination, fine motor development, imagination, motor planning, toys

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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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  3401 Mission St.
  San Francisco, CA 94110


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  3825 El Camino Real
  Palo Alto, CA 94306


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  (located at Sensitive Solutions)
  30 Avenue Portola, Suite 200 C & D
  Half Moon Bay, CA 94018

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