Creating History Everyday
The Excelerate V.2 programme began in early 2004 as a pilot intensive intervention programme for children with various special learning needs (e.g., autism spectrum disorders, developmental delay, language disorder, motor planning difficulties, sensory integration dysfunction).
The Excelerate V.2 programme was conceived, planned and put into action by Ms Pika Sen [Senior Speech-Language Therapist]. Ms Joanne Silvestri [Senior Speech-Language Therapist] shared the same vision and passion for excellence in service delivery. Her research background and shared commitment to evidence based practice brought the Excelerate V2 Programme to new heights. Together, Pika & Joanne have brought the program to the forefront of paediatric service delivery in Singapore and the Region. The Excelerate V2 Programme rapidly became the gold standard for effective therapy provision, attracting families from within Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States of America.
The concept of an integrated therapy centre, run by specialist therapists collaborating daily to ensure that each child’s therapy programme was customized
and fine tuned, was a difficult and unchartered territory to navigate. Such a centre
had not been set-up in Singapore prior to Excelerate V.2 due to the staffing,
logistics, equipment and funding issues inherent in building such a programme.
Moreover, many parents of children with special needs were accustomed to the
traditional model of having their child attend a “special school” with therapy
services being an additional, costly extra.
Having worked as a solo practitioner for ten years prior to developing the Excelerate
V.2 programme, Ms Sen was fully aware of the difficulties faced by parents in
managing a coherent and structured programme for their child. With the plethora of
treatment choices, and various professionals making suggestions to them, parents
were understandably confused. Managing the child’s, therapist’s and parent’s
schedules proved a challenge and conducting meetings to address a child’s
difficulties was next to impossible.
With never ending waiting lists and the shortage of truly skilled therapists, parents
were often ushered into whichever programme allowed their child a place most
quickly with the mentality that “something” was better than “nothing”. This often led
to children receiving unspecialized, paralleled and sub-optimal “one-size fits all”
services. As Excelerate V.2 boasted specialist paediatric therapists, integrated
services, individualized goal setting and evidence based practice methodologies, it
rapidly accelerated to the forefront of paediatric therapy service provision.
Finding additional exceptional staff and renovating suitable premises became a
priority in 2005 as the programme was growing rapidly. Excelerate V.2 is housed at
Tanglin Shopping Centre which is situated near Orchard Road, with access to
various child friendly shopping malls and communities nearby.
As of this writing, The Excelerate V2 Program is the leading paediatric intensive therapy service provider in Singapore and the region and we pride ourselves on our impeccable standards of practice and our outstanding
outcomes over the past decade.
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