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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Looking at the Big Picture

October 29, 2018 by Stacy Menz

 

 

When we provide physical or occupational therapy to kids, we are often asking parents about their child’s participation in life. Are there areas that they aren’t able to participate in fully or things that are really important to the child or family? For instance, if they go to a playground, will they readily play or will they sit on the sidelines? At dinner, are they able to eat with the family or do they need help for all or part of it? Can they communicate with their friends and family? Can they play with their siblings? All of these are areas that may come up for participation.

Now, in order to participate, they may have to perform certain activities. For instance, in order to feed themself, they may need to be able to grip a utensil, or scoop with a spoon. In order to get dressed, they may need to be able to stand on one foot to put their pants on, or use both hands to button a shirt, or reach their foot to pull on a sock. To play at the playground, they may need to be able to climb a ladder, or run on uneven surfaces, or walk across a wobbly bridge. These are the areas that help them to better participate in their life. By either improving their skill at these activities or by coming up with strategies and accommodations to help them be more successful, they will improve their ability to participate in the different areas of their life.

If we want to break it down even further, what are the areas that help them to complete these activities? This is where their strength, endurance, balance, coordination, ability to attend to a task, sensory processing, visual processing, etc come into play. These are the building blocks that will help them improve at various activities.

We think its important to look at the big picture because the goal is for children to be able to more independently participate in all areas of their life. Our goal is to break it down into the parts that will help them be successful, and occasionally recommend equipment or modifications that will help with success. For instance, if a child is having trouble feeding themselves because they have trouble keeping their body stable while using the utensil, maybe we will look at how to change their seating to improve their success, while we continue to work on improving their core strength and stability. Or, maybe we look at getting velcro shoes to increase independence while we continue to work on fine motor coordination and shoe tying. Do you see how we are always keeping how to maximize independence with participation at the forefront.

I could go on forever with examples but I’m hoping this explanation of the big picture makes sense.

The picture above is from an expo we were at and I thought it was a great example of how to support participation. It allows kids in wheelchairs to play soccer with their siblings or peers!

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Filed Under: Blog, Developmental Milestones Tagged With: education, fine motor development, gross motor development, Motor Smart Kids, occupational therapy, peer play, physical therapy, Starfish Therapies

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“My child has been diagnosed with hypotonia, we brought him to Starfish Physical Therapy since he was 8 months, he started from not moving at all, to crawling, to a little walker, he is now 3 years old running around everywhere with confidence and happiness. We can see his obvious improvement , that just tears us up sometimes! Every exercise he did in each session and everything the therapist thought he was applying into his daily life. Moreover, Starfish therapists are so nice and loving, the session is not just a therapy activity anymore, it becomes a part of our family life, the most important exciting activity for my son every week. Starfish is our family!! We feel so lucky to have Starfish helping our son, the endless effort you provided to him, changed his life. As a parent, nothing is more grateful than this.”

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

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