Author: The StrokeEd Collaboration
Presented: 11th November 2025
Duration: 1hr 9m
Presenters:
Dr Sandhya Urvashy Gopaul
is a physiotherapist with an MSc in Physiotherapy-Neurorehabilitation (University of Nottingham, UK) and PhD in Physiotherapy (University of Newcastle, Australia). She was previously a tenured faculty at the University of Mauritius for 7 years leading the physiotherapy education program before she relocated to Canada. Dr Gopaul is currently a post-doctoral researcher at the KITE Research Institute, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute- University Health Network, Canada.
Description: In this presentation, Dr Gopaul explains the role of sensation in motor recovery after stroke and why it is important to prioritize both somatosensory and motor training for optimal upper limb recovery. She discusses different ways that movement training can be combined with somatosensory training. Dr. Gopaul also explains how structured targeted feedback can assist in sensing movement, touch and position sense.
Learning outcomes
At the end of this session, you will be able to:
- Explain why sensory rehabilitation is important to motor recovery after stroke
- Describe rehabilitation strategies combining movement and somatosensory training after stroke
- Develop targeted feedback to assist in exploring movement and somatosensation
Publications about the COMPoSE program
Gopaul U, van Vliet P, Callister R, Nilsson M, Carey L. (2019) COMbined Physical and somatoSEnsory training after stroke: Development and description of a novel intervention to improve upper limb function. Physiotherapy Research International, 24:e1748. https://doi.org/10.1002/pri.1748
Gopaul, U., van Vliet, P., Nilsson, M., Bayley, M. T., Carey, L., & Callister, R. (2025). The COMbined Physical and somatoSEnsory (COMPoSE) training intervention to improve upper limb recovery after stroke: A single-case experimental study. Disability and Rehabilitation, 47(22), 5767–5779. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2025.2487204