what is
frequent and intensive therapy?
A unique therapy experience in which individual therapy is condensed to multiple, recurring days over a recommended number of weeks to address 1 to 3 goals intensively. This approach is utilized to achieve desired, meaningful outcomes and progress in a quicker, accelerated rate.
PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES FOR AN INTENSIVE BASED APPROACH
- The intensive focuses on identifying ways to assist with treatment, tailor to treat more specific goals in a comprehensive format and allow for quicker and effective progress in a shortened amount of time.
- Frequent and intensive therapy services provide the child with the ability to receive the repetition he/she needs to attain targeted objectives. When the brain receives a lot of repetition in a short amount of time, change and progress is seen at a quicker rate, and desired movements/skills/patterns become more “automatic.”
- An intensive therapy approach would benefit children who need that “burst” of repetitive intervention to help achieve a new developmental skill or milestone.
- For example, even 2-3 weeks of intensive therapy can bring about progress in a skill that may normally take six to twelve months with traditional outpatient therapy. MPPT’s intensive based program focuses on a child’s individual abilities and works on building their skills to enhance their development and take them to the next level and beyond.
Duration of Intensives
- The duration of your child’s intensive based program will be dependent on your therapist’s recommendation, as well as being in compliance with your insurance’s billing requirements.
- Typically, it is recommended that children completing an intensive attend sessions anywhere from 3-5 days per week over 2-5 weeks to achieve the desired consecutive and repetitive timeframe of this approach
- Frequent sessions multiple times per week, over recurring weeks can yield superior outcomes. In general, higher intensity treatment can produce large effects on progress. Data from (Edeal, D. & Gildersleeve-Neumann, C. (2011)), indicated that learning and maintenance of skills for children was greater for targets treated with more intensity (i.e. higher frequency and duration of services resulted in higher frequency of speech productions/goals.)
Intensive based programs at MPPT are provided for all areas of services:
occupational, physical, and speech therapy.