Healthy Strides SINGAPORE
"...world-leading and a globally recognised centre of excellence..."
Healthy Strides SINGAPORE
"...world-leading and a globally recognised centre of excellence..."
What is intensive therapy?
Therapy can be delivered either intensively over shorter, defined periods or distributed weekly throughout the year. Research demonstrates that intensive therapy provides optimal dosage for skill acquisition without excess, eliminating inefficiencies and duplication of services.
Evidence based intensive therapy, like the kind provided at Healthy Strides, supports children to achieve their goals in the most efficient and effective way, keeping the therapy financially sustainable.
This approach means:
✅ Lower costs over time by reducing therapy dependence
✅ More independent, active children who participate fully in their community
✅ A smarter, evidence-based investment that maximises the impact of limited resources.
Research shows that therapy must be adequately dosed for children to make functional gains quickly, which intensive therapy ensures. This reduces the need for frequent, ongoing weekly therapy, which is typically not dosed at a level that leads to fast skill acquisition. Instead, community therapy plays a critical role between intensive blocks, helping children practice and generalise their new skills in everyday life.
Published research alongside our data collected over the past 6 years clearly demonstrates sustained, meaningful outcomes following intensive therapy delivered over specific periods (i.e., 3 sessions a week over 6 weeks).
Published research
Our evidence-based intensive therapy is delivered at optimal dosage levels, carefully avoiding both insufficient and excessive intervention.
Our scientifically validated approach ensures therapy is meticulously structured for maximum effectiveness and efficient use of resources.
Intensive therapy involves significantly more than simply increasing session frequency.
It is a specialised service requiring nuanced understanding of therapy timing, intensity, skill progression, and carefully scaffolded challenges tailored to individual capabilities.
An analogy to marathon training clearly illustrates this concept—successful preparation involves carefully planned variations in exercise types, intensities, durations, and essential recovery periods.
Why evidence-based and research backed?
Over the past decade, there has been a strong international effort to research key priorities for children, families and clinicians. As such, we now have evidence on what works best to improve skill acquisition so that children and youth can live their best lives. By utilising the latest research, we can be sure that the treatments are safe and provide the best opportunity to improve outcomes in the least amount of time.
As such, it is important to note that we do not offer any treatments that have been shown to be ineffective, or are grounded on outdated motor learning and neuroplasticity theories. These treatments include Bobath or Neurodevelopmental Therapy (ND), Vojta, Cuevas Medek Exercises (CME) or its recent derivative Dynamic Movement Intervention (DMI). The reason why these treatments have been outdated is because they rely on manual facilitation techniques (dating back to the 1970s).
Manual facilitation means that the therapist provides hands-on facilitation, which removes the real and true opportunity for the child to learn the movement by themselves. This means that the child learns to be dependent on physical prompting and assistance to move which makes the path to learning a new skill much longer and more difficult.
To contrast, modern research grounded in current motor learning and neuroplasticity knowledge recognises that children with neurodisabilities learn just like everyone else - they have to do the movement or the task themselves. They have to think about moving, get their body ready themselves and to do the movement themselves. This requires the therapist to be creative and to be committed to empowering the child to be independent, to problem solve and to learn.
This is a significant and profound shift from how we first thought children with neurodisabilities learn.
Healthy Strides has developed programs to support children to achieve their goals, reach their full potential, be active and autonomous - all to improve their quality of life for meaningful participation.
Evidence Supporting Intensive Therapy
Supported by robust evidence, intensive therapy offers significant advantages:
- Neuroplasticity and Motor Learning Principles:
- Intensive, repetitive practice stimulates neuroplasticity, ensuring lasting motor skill improvements and functional change.
- Optimal Dosage for Skill Acquisition:
- Research clearly shows intensive therapy models deliver superior outcomes compared to distributed, weekly sessions. Frequent repetition consolidates motor learning, leading to substantial and rapid functional gains.
- Comparative Effectiveness:
- High-frequency, intensive sessions significantly outperform weekly therapy models in motor skill development and functional participation, ensuring clinically meaningful outcomes.
Advantages of Intensive Therapy
Research confirms that a minimum frequency of three sessions per week is critical to achieve significant, sustained functional outcomes. Less frequent sessions fail to provide the necessary repetition to induce and maintain these improvements. Evidence clearly shows intensive therapy significantly outperforms standard distributed therapy by:
- Enhancing Mobility Outcomes: Improving walking speed, endurance, standing strength and transfer capacity.
- Facilitating Task-Specific Skill Acquisition: Applying motor learning principles for better generalisation to everyday activities.
- Delivering Clinically Meaningful, Sustained Results.
- Aligning with Neuroplasticity Principles: Optimal dosage ensures lasting neurological and functional improvements.
Research Evidence Supporting the Cost Effectiveness of Intensive Therapy
While intensive therapy initially requires a higher immediate investment, evidence indicates it leads to sustained functional gains and reduces long-term therapy requirements. This aligns with the goal of promoting long-term independence, community participation, and overall functional capabilities.
Interventions that focus on person-centred, goal-directed, and task-specific training are highly effective in improving functional outcomes for children with neurodisabilities (Jackman et al., 2021).
Early and appropriately dosed therapy not only leads to rapid, meaningful functional gains but also reduces long-term healthcare and disability support needs, generating significant cost savings (Tonmukayakul et al., 2018). Furthermore, improvements achieved through early intensive interventions help prevent secondary health complications, decrease dependency, and reduce carer burden, aligning directly improving independence and workforce participation (Deloitte Access Economics, 2018).
A world renowned team
Perth, Australia 🇦🇺 | Miri, Sarawak 🇲🇾 | Singapore 🇸🇬
NB. For all program requests, please complete the dedicated form.
Healthy Strides Singapore
320 Serangoon Road #17-09/10/11 Centrium Square, Singapore 218108
