Climbing stairs is one of those exercises that recurs constantly during therapy and rehabilitation. For children in rehabilitation, climbing stairs is often difficult and boring, and they can find it quite daunting.
This is logical, yet at the same time, climbing stairs is very functional and necessary!
To practice climbing stairs, a child is primarily repeating, trying again, and repeating once more.
Especially when things don’t work out for a moment, it can be very frustrating and motivation drops.
Practicing becomes something that must be done.
The Experience Stairs were developed based on that observation: learning (or relearning) to climb stairs is boring. It can be more fun!
It is an activation tool that supports guided play and the shifting of focus.
Practicing through challenge
The principle of the Experience Stairs is simple:
If practicing becomes more fun, children will want to do it more often. And if they want to do it more often, practicing and learning become more effective.
By adding playful challenges to the stairs, the experience changes.
It remains the same movement, the same therapeutic exercise, but the context is different.
Children are invited to:
- collect coins
- follow a little bird
- go just one step further than last time
Because they want to discover what happens when they take another step.
This variety makes practicing feel less like repetition and drills
and more like something you actively choose to do.
Support, not a replacement for therapy
The Experience Stairs are always intended as a support for therapy, never as a replacement.
The healthcare professional continues to determine the goal of the exercise, monitor safety, and tailor the pace and level of the exercises to the child.
The stairs add something to that: motivation.
The game elements provide just that extra push that makes a child willing to try again.
The game motivates; the professional provides structure and confidence.
Games and experiences
The Experience Stairs offer room for different forms of use.
On one hand, there are therapeutic games, focused on specific goals:
practicing stair climbing, muscle strength, balance, or coordination.
On the other hand, there are experiences, intended to motivate children to take the stairs
and to apply what they have practiced in a free setting.
An example is the music or rainbow stairs:
sound or color is created with every step.
A child can go forward, back, skip a step, and discover what changes, thus making their own music and creating a play of colors.
Or a calm underwater world, where fish move among the seaweed.
No assignment, no score. Just watching and experiencing.
Both forms have their own value, depending on the moment and the child.
Tailored to the child and the approach
No two children are the same. One child needs stimuli and challenge, while another practices better in a calm environment.
The specific needs also differ:
- relearning to climb stairs
- learning to climb stairs for the first time
- training muscle strength or endurance
In addition, cognitive level and sensory sensitivity play a major role. Can a child process light and sound well, or not?
Is activation desirable, or rather calming?
Therefore, the games and experiences are chosen by the healthcare professional based on:
- the child’s level
- the child’s (over)stimulation profile
- the therapeutic goals
- the organization’s working method
This creates a staircase that fits the children who use it and the professionals who work with it.
Practicing becomes a choice
What we see in practice is that motivation makes the difference.
When a child is challenged at their level and the exercise is offered playfully, room for autonomy is created.
The child chooses to move themselves.
And that is exactly what makes practicing more fun, lighter, and often more effective. Climbing stairs remains a repetitive movement. But it no longer feels like “more of the same.”
And that is exactly what the Experience Stairs are intended for.