Clinical area
Neuropsychomotor
Rehabilitation
A moving body is never only a moving body: it is a body that thinks, feels and relates. Neuropsychomotor rehabilitation works precisely at that meeting point.
What it is
Neuropsychomotor rehabilitation is a therapeutic intervention that considers together three dimensions that are never separate in a person: motor function, cognitive function and the emotional-relational dimension.
A child who cannot tie their shoelaces does not simply have a problem with their fingers. Often they have an uncertain representation of their own body, a motor sequence that has not become automatic, and sometimes a history of frustration that leads them to give up before even trying. Working on only one of these levels produces fragile results.
The underlying principle
The nervous system learns by doing, not by listening to instructions. This is why a session is not a lesson: it is an environment built so that the person meets the right amount of difficulty — enough to require reorganisation, not so much that it only produces failure.
The therapist constantly modulates this distance: simplifying, complicating, supporting, stepping back. It is a work of direction more than of execution.
What it is not
- It is not corrective gymnastics or muscle strengthening.
- It is not the mechanical repetition of exercises.
- It is not an educational or teaching intervention, although it works with schools.
- It is not a therapy limited to the visible symptom.
The areas we work on
Body schema
The internal map of one's body: where the parts are, how they move, where I end and space begins.
Praxis and coordination
Planning, sequencing and executing a purposeful gesture: from drawing to fastening, from dressing to writing.
Balance and posture
Antigravity control, trunk stability and quality of support as the basis of every fine movement.
Spatial and temporal organisation
Orienting in space, grasping rhythm, ordering a sequence, handling before and after.
Attention and executive functions
Sustaining focus, inhibiting impulses, switching between tasks, seeing things through.
Emotional regulation
Tolerating frustration, recognising the bodily activation of emotion, returning to calm.
In practice
What a session looks like
The room is equipped with soft materials, climbing structures, balls, hoops, drawing and construction materials. Nothing is there by chance: every object poses a different motor problem.
With children, play is the language. The therapist enters the game the child proposes and steers it, gradually shifting the demand towards the therapeutic goal without the experience ceasing to be enjoyable.
With adults, the work is more explicit and shared: movements that feel effortful are analysed together, broken down and rebuilt with more efficient strategies.
At the end of every session, what emerged is recorded in the clinical file, so that the programme remains traceable and verifiable over time.
Who it is for
Indications vary greatly with age. These are the most frequent.
- 1
Early childhood (0 – 3 years)
Delayed motor milestones, persistent postural asymmetries, sleep and feeding regulation difficulties, prematurity, known syndromic conditions. At this age plasticity is at its peak and early intervention offers the best cost-benefit ratio.
- 2
Preschool age (3 – 6 years)
Motor clumsiness, difficulties with everyday autonomy, immature drawing and fine motor skills, attention and behaviour regulation difficulties, language delays associated with praxic fragility.
- 3
School age (6 – 13 years)
Dysgraphia and writing fatigue, developmental dyspraxia, attention and self-regulation disorders, difficulties organising schoolwork, emotional repercussions on self-image.
- 4
Adolescence
Reorganisation of the body schema during rapid growth, posture, management of performance anxiety, continuity of programmes begun in childhood.
- 5
Adults and older people
Outcomes of neurological events, neurodegenerative conditions in early and intermediate stages, balance disorders with fall risk, chronic pain with a postural component, deconditioning after long immobilisation.
Frequently asked questions
My child is just a little behind: should I worry?
Worry, no; observe, yes. Development varies widely between individuals and many differences resolve on their own. The useful criterion is not the single delay but persistence and functional impact: if a difficulty has lasted for months and limits the child's participation in everyday life, it is worth having it looked at. An assessment that ends with "everything is fine" is an excellent result, not wasted time.
Does therapy interfere with school?
We always look for times that do not take away from school and social activities. A child also has the right not to be a full-time patient: an afternoon entirely filled with therapies is itself a stress factor.
Do we have to do exercises at home?
We rarely assign "homework". We prefer to suggest changes to the everyday context — how to set the table, how to organise a schoolbag, which games to offer — that provide practice without turning the home into a clinic and the parent into a therapist.
How do we know it is working?
Goals are written in observable form at the start: not "improve coordination" but, for example, "climb and descend stairs alternating feet without support". At each review we check whether that goal has been reached. It is the only honest way to measure.
Would you like an opinion?
That is exactly what the first interview is for: understanding together whether a programme is indicated, and which one.