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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Using a Therapy Ball for Torticollis

April 1, 2019 by Stacy Menz

We have talked a lot about torticollis recently thanks to the new guidelines that were recently published. Here we talk about 5 signs of torticollis, and here we talk about ways to prevent torticollis. We also have a great resource handout for parents and caregivers that we will gladly pass along (please email us for it).

Torticollis is when the sternocleidomastoid (SCM) muscle is short and/or weak. It results in a child having a preference to look to one side and tilt their head to the other side. For instance if they look to the right, they will tilt to the left. There may only be one of these present but often both are present. We teach parents how to do stretching but we also want that muscle to get stronger so that it can help to right the head when they are against gravity, as well as help keep the head in midline as they are in different positions.

Often you may see the rotation or tilt start to disappear in one position but as they go into a more challenging position, or they get tired it will come back.

We like to use a therapy ball to help with this. It can be hard to get both rotation and tilting for strengthening at the same time so check out the video above to see how we do it! We also give a few more tips on how to work on the tilt component because this generally takes the longest to come back strength-wise.

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Filed Under: Blog, Developmental Milestones Tagged With: babies, gross motor development, Motor Smart Kids, physical therapy, plagiocephaly, Starfish Therapies, strengthening, torticollis, tummy time

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We have been working with Starfish Therapies over the last year, and my four year-old has made incredible progress in her gross motor development. Stacy has an amazing ability to work with children. She uses her energy, humor and creativity to make children laugh and play, and at the same time work very hard.”

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  1541 Old Bayshore Highway
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