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 Balance Reactions

April 15, 2019 by Stacy Menz

One of our therapists was recently working on balance reactions with a child and I thought it was such a great simple idea. You take some Squigz and put them on a surface. We don’t have a good child height surface so we use a wedge. The goal is for the child to pull them off which causes them to move backwards with the force of the pull. In order to compensate so they don’t fall over they will have to activate either their ankle, hip, or stepping strategy. Depending on how firmly you put the Squigz on the surface will determine how forcefully they are shifted backwards and potentially which balance reaction they utilize. For a child who is just developing balance you probably want to stick them no fairly light so that they just have a small perturbation!

What are some strategies you use for working on balance reactions?

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Filed Under: Blog, Developmental Milestones Tagged With: balance, gross motor development, kids, Motor Smart Kids, physical therapy, Starfish Therapies

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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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Locations

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


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


  PALO ALTO
  (located in Agile Physical Therapy)
  3825 El Camino Real
  Palo Alto, CA 94306


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

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