Personal Stories
Luke's Story
In 2002 my son was unable to read although he was in Year Five at school. He was operating across most areas at a year two/three level, with difficulty. Using the principles outlined in 'Understanding Learning Difficulties' by Barbara Pheloung and with guidance I was able to start him on a program of developmental motor movements(gross motor work), to address the neurological causes of his condition. I changed his diet as he was reacting to many common food additives and later withdrew him from public school to home-school him for the remainder of the year.
I know now he would have been placed in the Autistic Spectrum if I had had him formally accessed at that time.
He had so many retained primitive reflexes I cannot say them all in one breath.
He had auditory processing problems and is still hyper auditory.He had visual processing problems.
He had ocular motor problems.
He was hypo tactile.
He had vestibular problems
He was unable to recall almost any sight words.
He lacked social awareness.
He made repetitive, inappropriate noises.
He didn't 'get' jokes.
He lacked a temperature gauge.
He had had delayed language and speech problems.
He had poor fine motor skills.
At the start of grade five he was unable to read the first sentence of Harry Potter. With support I began to work with him on his impossible dream, to read the first Harry Potter novel. Within twelve months he had read all the published Harry Potter novels.
I put him back into the public school system when he started Year Six in January 2003. Over the next two years (2003 to 2004) he went from the lowest to the highest math group. He was awarded the Year Seven Science Prize in 2004. He now reads prodigiously and has a particular talent for mathematics. At the end of year eight (2005) his school awarded him the Secondary School Literacy and Research Award and he earned the highest achievement for Aviation.
Progressively, as I have accessed the therapy methods we have treated his difficulties. This is ongoing and he still has a couple of areas we are working on.
business exposure