News from Starfish Therapies

Starfish Therapies Newsletter

Happy Summer!

June 2012
Volume 43

In This Issue

Updates

Out and About

Just For Fun

Top 10 Summer Activities

Wearing Sensory...

Starfish Updates

Blog: Check out our most recent blog posts! This month we talked about playing Connect 4, Postural Control, anticipatory or reactionary Balance Reactions, ways to use Limbo, the importance of Perspective, using Hula Hoops, the benefits of PB&J, getting through the heat with Water Squirt Toys, how to maximize your time at the Park, ways to help kids with Posture, Star Wars, different uses for Spots, a Simple Trick, fun uses for Stickers, and ways to encourage Single Leg Stance.

Motor Smart Kids: Summer can be a bit crazy with school out and kids schedules changing so rather than run a 6 week session we will hold group every Tuesday in July and August from 2:45-3:30. If you know your child wants to come to all of them the cost is $135 ($15 per session). If you are going to just come to a few sessions due to vacations and such cost will be $20 per session. In the fall we will resume our normal 6 week session increments. For any questions or to sign your child up please call or email Corinne at 650-638-9142. We hope to see your child at group!

Fine Motor/Handwriting: If you are interested in some extra help with handwriting or fine motor over the summer for your child please let us know. We are looking to put together a fine motor and/or handwriting group. Please contact Corinne at 650-638-9142 for more details or if you are interested in one on one sessions.

New Staff: We would like to welcome Stephanie Erickson to our staff. Stephanie is an occupational therapist with her doctorate degree in occupational therapy. She is a transplant from Chicago where she gained her experience and love of working with children. We are very excited to welcome her to our team and her bio should be up on the web site shortly.

Quick Links...

Out and About

Mission Small Business
Chase and Living Social are helping small businesses (here is an explanation) by offering them the chance to win a grant to support their vision and growth. We are in the running to be considered for this grant. Please take a moment and vote for our application to make it to the next step. This grant will allow us to continue to provide our therapists with training that gives them cutting edge information to better serve your kids. In addition it will allow us to expand to reach more children who currently may not have access to services. In short this grant will allow us to provide even higher quality care to more people. To support us just login to support and then search for Starfish Therapies in California and vote. We thank you in advance for your support. You and your children are why we do what we do.

Just For Fun

Last month we featured Duck Duck Moose's Trucks! Well this month they have a new app that may appear more to those little princesses you have at home. It's Princess Fairy Tale Maker. This app allows your child to create their own fairy tale and then share the final version with their friends. Not only do they get to play but they can work on their creativity and literacy skills as well!

Greetings!

Welome back! Check out what is new with Starfish Therapies and get some great tips for summer activities!

Top 10 Summer Activities for Kids

If your looking for things to do this summer, here is a list of great activities for you and your child to get involved in.

Swimming: Swimming gives great proprioceptive feedback to work on spatial awareness and self-regulation for kids. They're getting input throughout their whole body. It also can help with motor planning and overall bilateral coordination.

Hiking: Even if this is just a journey around the neighborhood. Make it fun, find some hills, rocks to walk over, go through a playground, stop for a picnic outside, jump, skip and walk backwards.

Sidewalk Chalk: This is great to maintain some handwriting skills and work on strengthening those hands. Have them complete it in different positions as well. Sitting, on hands and knees and on their tummy's.

Rolling Down Hills: Find a safe grassy area and take advantage of this. It provides lots of vestibular and proprioceptive input for those sensory seeking kids.

Eye-Spy: The great thing about this game is it can be played anywhere. It's great for working on visual tracking and scanning one's environment.

Garden Play: This is a great way to spend time with the kids but also get in some tactile play from playing in the dirt. Allow them to feel the differences in texture between dry dirt and wet dirt (mud).

Obstacle Courses: This can be fun and work on many different areas. Use whatever you can find outside or around the house to create different obstacle courses. Allow your child to work on coming up with how to create it as well to work on initiation and motor planning.

Camps/Groups: Lots of exposure to building up those social skills. Depending on your child's sensory needs you may need to start with smaller groups and work your way up to larger groups.

Cooking: Another great way to get in tactile play and to work on sequencing of steps. Find simple recipes that can be done together and that your child would be able to work on following 2-3 steps at a time.

Playing Dress-up: This can become really fun and silly. Use old Halloween costumes, mommy and daddy's clothes, bigger sister or brother's old clothes, etc. It's a great way to work on dressing skills but to have fun with doing it.

Wearing Sensory...

hat Receiving proprioceptive input throughout the day is important for our sensory seeking children. Sensory breaks play a big part of their day in order to help them function in whatever situation they may be part of, but it may not always be possible to get in that needed sensory break. There are different options out there that kids can wear to help meet some of their sensory needs throughout the day:

Hats: Tighter caps or hats can provide input to a child's head throughout the day. This is especially beneficial for prepping those kids that have difficulties tolerating hair cuts.

Tighter clothing: Tighter shirts, such as Under Armor can provide some input and comfort throughout the day. These can be worn under clothing if needed as well.

Wrist Fidgets: A variety of bracelets can be bought or made to be used as fidgets in order to help maintain attention. Rubber bands, thera tube, thera bands, Velcro, beads, hair elastics, etc. could all be used.

Chewy necklaces: Great for those kids that come home with drenched shirts from chewing on them all day.

Sunglasses: For those visually sensitive kids with sunlight and lighting in rooms.

Puff paint pick: Some kids have the urge to pick at things throughout the day, whether it be themselves or items. Buying some cheap t-shirts and decorating them with puff paint can be a great alternative strategy. This way they're picking at their shirt all day instead, as long as you don't mind finding trails of puff paint.

Self Regulation Reminders: Some kids need reminders of when their regulation levels start raising in certain situation or going the other way and getting extremely low. Verbal cues don't always work, especially in busier areas where there may be a lot of stimulus to become overwhelmed by. Visual reminders can help with this. Make a key chain out of tiny laminated visuals to attach to your child's belt loop, bracelet or backpack. This way it's with them and easy to refer to when they need a regulatory strategy and it can be their choice.

Thank you for reading this month. See you in July!

Sincerely,

Your Friends at
Starfish Therapies