Educational Therapy
WHAT IS EDUCATIONAL THERAPY
Educational Therapy gives children access to a combined suite of more than 30 therapeutic protocols designed to support those with complex learning needs - going beyond academic performance to address the root causes that affect how a child learns.
Rather than treating symptoms in isolation, our approach targets the underlying cognitive, emotional, and developmental processes that impact learning. The goal is to restore functionality, build resilience, and ease transitions into school environments.
Through structured, evidence-informed intervention, children develop the skills needed to take in, retain, and apply information with greater ease. This leads to improved mental clarity, reduced stress and fatigue, and stronger capacity to navigate both academic and social challenges.
Our team of highly trained professionals is dedicated to helping every child unlock their full potential, not just in the classroom, but in life.
Led by Experienced Educational Therapists
Our programme is led by Agnes Quek, Founder of Assumption Learning, a Master Trainer in Cognitive Psychology and Certified Therapist in Neuro-Developmental Treatment (NDT) for Autism Spectrum Disorder, Sensory Integration (SI) Intervention (University of Southern California), MNRI Reflex Movement Integration, and a Level 2 Consultant in the Tomatis Method.
With more than 15 years of experience spanning Cognitive Skills Development, Sensory Processing and Sensory Integration Therapy, Vision Therapy, Integrating Mouth and Postural Functions in Speech Delay and Auditory Processing & Reading and Language Therapy. Agnes founded Assumption Learning in 2019. Read Agnes's full bio →
Every child's programme is designed and delivered by our wider team of Educational Therapists and Associate Educational Psychologists, including Look Xi En (Master in Educational Psychology), Chai Bao Lin (Master in Child Psychology), and Jasper Yap Khai Jun (M.Sc. Clinical Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London), each bringing specialised training across different areas of learning support. Meet the full team →
Educational Therapy vs Tuition
 Educational Therapy |
 Tuition |
| Helps rewire a child’s brain to improve how the child learns, processes information, and responds to learning. | Follows the school curriculum by teaching topics according to the child’s current syllabus and classroom learning pace. |
| Develops and strengthens overall abilities, including changing the child’s attitude towards learning. | Strengthens what is taught in school by helping the child review, practise, and better understand the lessons covered in class. |
| Addresses underlying learning challenges and builds metacognitive skills. | Focuses on helping the child complete, understand, and practise homework or school assignments. |
| Is individualised and involves an assessment of the child’s capabilities. | Provides extra support to help the child improve academically in selected subjects. |
| Aims to restore missed developmental milestones that impair the child’s functionality. | Provides additional practice in specific content or subject areas. |
|
Educational Therapy |
| Helps rewire a child’s brain to improve how the child learns, processes information, and responds to learning. |
| Develops and strengthens overall abilities, including changing the child’s attitude towards learning. |
| Addresses underlying learning challenges and builds metacognitive skills. |
| Is individualised and involves an assessment of the child’s capabilities. |
| Aims to restore missed developmental milestones that impair the child’s functionality. |
|
Tuition |
| Follows the school curriculum by teaching topics according to the child’s current syllabus and classroom learning pace. |
| Strengthens what is taught in school by helping the child review, practise, and better understand the lessons covered in class. |
| Focuses on helping the child complete, understand, and practise homework or school assignments. |
| Provides extra support to help the child improve academically in selected subjects. |
| Provides additional practice in specific content or subject areas. |
Common signs that a child may need more than tuition
| Area | What Parents May Notice |
|---|---|
| Visual skills | The child may have difficulty trying to manipulate and orientate blocks, differentiating multiple visual information, matching similar shapes and sizes, or struggles with identifying, visualising or copying letters such as b/d, p/q, 6/9 or m/n. |
| Drawing and writing readiness | The child may struggle to draw basic shapes, copy patterns, write on a line, write with spacing, form letters properly, or draw a straight line. |
| Hand-eye coordination | The child may find it difficult or slow to copy from the board, catch or throw a ball, cut with scissors, colour within lines, or coordinate hand movements while writing. |
| Learning attitude | The child may resist learning new things and become emotional, such as feeling angry, frustrated, or overwhelmed. |
| Reading and writing foundation | The child may mix up letters, skip words when reading, unable to remember sight words, struggle to spell, or find it difficult to organise thoughts into sentences. |
| Motor and body awareness | The child may appear clumsy, have poor pencil grip, press too hard or too lightly when writing, or struggle with posture while doing table work. |
Who is Educational Therapy for?
Educational Therapy is designed to support children who face a range of learning and developmental challenges, including conditions recognised under Singapore's Special Educational Needs (SEN) framework:
Learning Difficulties - Children who find learning significantly more challenging than most of their peers at the same age
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
Intellectual Disability
Specific Learning Disorders - Including Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia, and Nonverbal Learning Disorder
Who Can Benefit from Educational Therapy?
Your child may benefit if they…
Take longer to grasp concepts compared to children of the same age
Shows resistance towards learning new things and may react emotionally, such as with anger or frustration.
Have difficulty sustaining focus or attention during lessons or tasks
Struggle with reading, writing, mathematics, or comprehension
Appear disorganised, forgetful, or find it hard to plan and manage tasks
Have difficulty coping with transitions or changes in routine
Struggle to follow or retain spoken instructions
Find it consistently challenging to meet school expectations or keep up with coursework
Show low confidence or anxiety around academic performance and learning
Objectives of Educational Therapy
Build independent learning habits, self-awareness, work ethics and self-advocacy
Support parents with educational and transition planning
Primary School Preparatory Readiness
Address the underlying issues that affect a child’s ability to perform academically and socially
Provide intensive educational intervention beyond what classroom teaching or typical tutoring can offer
Strengthen core Cognitive Skills that affects learning
For comparison, Singapore schools already offer in-house support such as MOE's Learning Support Programme for early literacy and numeracy needs. Educational Therapy is designed to go further - addressing the underlying cognitive and developmental processes behind a child's learning difficulties, rather than the classroom symptoms alone.
Assumption Learning Educational Therapy Programme Includes
Assumption Learning Educational Therapy programme supports a wide range of foundational learning skills, including but not limited to the areas below.
| Area of Support | Key Skills We Work On |
|---|---|
| Penmanship & Writing Readiness | Pre-preparatory penmanship exercises, finger muscle tone, finger motor movements, letter spacing and alignment, pencil grip and posture, writing pressure, and eye-hand coordination. |
| Visual & Spatial Awareness | Visual processing, visual perception, visual discrimination, and 3D spatial perception to support how a child interprets and organises visual information. |
| Vision-Related Learning Skills | Eye pursuit, eye tracking, eye focusing, eye teaming, and eye reflex skills that may affect reading, writing, and classroom learning. |
| Auditory Processing | Motor timing for cognition, rhythmic timing for language, auditory memory, auditory-hand coordination, and speech perception skills that support how the brain hears, decodes, and interprets spoken language. |
| Phonemic Awareness & Sound Processing | Auditory drilling activities that support blending, segmenting, and discrimination of sounds, which are important for reading and spelling development. |
| Attention & Learning Stamina | Sustained attention, divided attention, selective attention, and mental stamina to support focus, learning endurance, and task completion. |
| Speech, Language & Literacy | Sentence formation, grammar, vocabulary, communication, articulation, fluency, reading, critical thinking, comprehension, and written composition. |
| Numeracy Skills | Number sense, number sequencing, number bonds, and number computation to strengthen foundational mathematical understanding. |
| Memory Skills | Working memory, visual memory, and auditory memory to support learning, recall, instruction-following, reading, writing, and problem-solving. |
| Chinese Dyslexia Support | Spatial alignment in Chinese characters, Chinese phonemic and tonal awareness for Han Yu Pin Yin, visual-spatial perception, working memory for reading, vocabulary expansion, and writing stroke order. |
Assumption Learning Approach to Educational Therapy
A structured journey designed to understand your child’s needs, set meaningful goals, and support progress beyond the therapy room.
| Stage | Focus Areas |
|---|---|
| 1. Understand | Fact finding, information gathering, review of existing reports. |
| 2. Prepare | Pre-ET preparation to help your child get ready for therapy. |
| 3. Plan | Goal setting, therapy planning, alignment with parent expectations. |
| 4. Intervene | Targeted Educational Therapy sessions based on your child’s needs. |
| 5. Support at Home | Practical adjustments of home routine & lifestyle, practice activities, and parent guidance > Practical guidance on home routines, lifestyle adjustments, practice activities, and parent support. |
| 6. Collaborate & Review | Parent follow-ups, progress reviews, and school collaboration where needed. |
Frequently Asked Questions
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No, an assessment made by our therapist is sufficient.
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Yes. We use formal and informal assessments to uncover a child’s areas of strength and weakness to determine how information is received and interpreted. Assessments can also provide a road map for guiding or informing the work of the educational therapist.
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No. Tuition or tutoring typically focuses on teaching subject content and preparing for exams. Educational therapy addresses the underlying learning processes that affect how a child learns, retains and applies information. It aims to restore missed developmental milestones that impair the child’s functionality. It is more intensive, individualized and skills-focused.
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Every child progresses at their own pace, but most children begin to show noticeable improvements after around 2 months of consistent Educational Therapy, provided they attend sessions regularly and complete the recommended homework and practice activities at home. Consistent reinforcement outside of therapy plays an important role in helping children build and retain new skills.
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3 years is a good age for a child to start as Early Intervention is vital in a child’s development.
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The duration will depend on several factors including the objectives, the needs of the child, the complexity of the learning profile, the child’s response to intervention, motivation, the parent’s goals, and commitment level. Some children attend for a shorter block to build specific skills; others benefit from longer-term support with periodic reviews. Your therapist will discuss a realistic plan with you and adjust it based on progress.