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 San Mateo, your home, school or daycare.

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Maintaining Supination for Underhand Activities

February 20, 2019 by Stacy Menz

I know we recently talked about practicing underhand throwing, and as a result, as we were working on the skill with one of our kids recently, we realized that they knew what they were supposed to do but they weren’t able to maintain their arm in a supinated (palm up) position as they went into […]

Filed Under: Blog, Developmental Milestones Tagged With: ball skills, coordination, games, gross motor development, kids, motor planning, Motor Smart Kids, physical therapy, play, Starfish Therapies, strengthening

Helping New Walkers Find Stability

February 17, 2019 by Stacy Menz

We have done a lot of posts recently on core strength for stability. Here is one for standing and here is one for sitting! These are always somewhat ‘easier’ when a child is older and can easily follow directions. However if you read our last post, we talked about the need for stability with kids […]

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

Core Strength and New Walkers

February 13, 2019 by Stacy Menz

When kids first learn to walk, they aren’t steady or confident in their motor skills and balance (not that they know this, but their bodies do) and they need ways to control all the joints. They will often lock out joints to control degrees of freedom so there are less things moving that they have […]

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

Practicing Underhand Throwing

February 10, 2019 by Stacy Menz

We recently talked about how to work on and practice overhand throwing with kids, and how to work on catching. Now we are going to talk about underhand throwing. A lot of the same principles that we talked about in the above two posts work in terms of cueing and how to progress or breakdown […]

Filed Under: Blog, Developmental Milestones Tagged With: ball skills, coordination, gross motor development, kids, motor planning, Motor Smart Kids, physical therapy, play, Starfish Therapies

Gait Analysis

February 6, 2019 by Stacy Menz

We were recently asked to talk about how we do gait analysis for kids with neuromuscular challenges such as cerebral palsy. We have a few things that we do depending on what we are trying to find out. For this post I will talk about our go to method. Our main method of doing gait […]

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

Skipping

February 3, 2019 by Stacy Menz

Skipping is a skill that can be very common amongst kids. But, it can be a skill that is hard to teach. The child needs to have coordination and strength and balance to name a few things. A lot of times when we ask a child to skip they will go straight into galloping (we […]

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

Galloping

January 30, 2019 by Stacy Menz

Galloping and skipping are two activities that kids will often do when they are playing. We’re going to talk a little bit about galloping today. When it comes to teaching kids how to gallop, we will try to break it down into steps with cueing and then slowly remove cues and add the steps together. […]

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

Practicing Throwing Overhand

January 27, 2019 by Stacy Menz

     Last week we talked about practicing catching in this post! Some of the same ideas are going to be applicable. You want to consider what ball you are asking the child to throw with. You are also going to want to consider the distance you are starting out at. In addition, underhand and […]

Filed Under: Blog, Developmental Milestones Tagged With: ball skills, coordination, gross motor development, kids, motor planning, Motor Smart Kids, physical therapy, play, Starfish Therapies

Core Stability vs Core Strength

January 23, 2019 by Stacy Menz

I was recently on a hike with a friend and she asked why are people always saying the kids in her class need more core strength. To her, they seemed to be plenty strong, and then she listed all the activities they could do. When I asked what they had trouble with that led people […]

Filed Under: Blog, Developmental Milestones Tagged With: coordination, education, exercise, gross motor development, kids, Motor Smart Kids, physical therapy, sitting, Starfish Therapies, strengthening, therapy ball

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Primary Programs

  • Motor Smart Kids
    • Developmental Playgroups: Pre-Crawlers
    • Developmental Playgroups: Pre/New-Walkers
    • Developmental Playgroups: Toddlers
    • Kids Action Hour
    • Yoga for Kids of All Abilities
    • Functional Movement Screen
    • Video Running Analysis
    • Youth Sports Injury Prevention
    • Concussion Screening and Management
  • Continuing Education
    • PNF 1: Introduction to PNF
    • PNF 2: Accessing the Trunk
    • Strength Training in Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder
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What Clients Are Saying

...my four year-old has made incredible progress...

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.”

Caroline H.
I could see the progress being made in my son’s communication...

I could see the progress being made in my son’s communication and overall disposition. Not only were the classes fun, but he also became a lot less frustrated when trying to communicate with others.”

Jason’s Mom

Recent Blog Posts

  • Maintaining Supination for Underhand Activities
  • Helping New Walkers Find Stability
  • Core Strength and New Walkers
  • Practicing Underhand Throwing
  • Gait Analysis

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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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