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Jordan a twelve year old boy was brought to me with a classic history
of “Dyslexia”. Along with the classic history came
the “classic” bundle of documentation including the inevitable Psychological
Assessment. Although such assessments are valuable and provide much
detail as to the childhood development, they do not in of themselves
provide an understanding of the underlying problems and therefore
treatment modalities that are desperately needed.
The report on Jordan included the comments that he did
not crawl, was slightly myopic, had poor
concentration, was often moody, anxious,
had poor personal hygiene and would respond aggressively
by biting when frustrated.
Reading and writing were major problems putting him way behind
his peers. He was unable to verbalise his needs, gave indications
of having a very low self-esteem and when falling
over as he frequently did, could not tolerate his classmates laughing
at him.
Along with so many other children Jordan had suffered from eczema
most of his life and was prone to catch any thing going.
On examination Jordan failed the standard hearing tests, sat or
stood with his head tilted to the left, was totally dyspraxic,
had marked weakness of the right little finger in abduction and
had a positive Babinski sign on the right ( a retained primitive
reflex).
Crawling is a very important aspect of development as it
promotes learning of cross-cord reflexes essential to the
development of postural reflexes. Many children by-pass this
stage bottom shuffling instead.
Although Jordan arrived with a label of being Dyslexic
it was apparent from the start that he was also Dyspraxic,
had signs of Attention Deficit Disorder and a few
Obsessional Compulsive Disorder traits. Once we
realise that these labels are not diseases but merely signs and
symptoms of an underlying problem then we can start to make sense
of just what is happening.
Virtually all children present with aspects of all the so-called
Developmental Delay conditions only the degree
to which they are present varies. This means that a child may be
40% dyslexic, 30% dyspraxic, 20% ADD and 10% Obsessional. Each child
will have their own unique blend of symptoms which
together constitute their own expression of the underlying neurodevelopment
causes. This is fundamental not only to the diagnosis of the presenting
condition but essential if an effective treatment protocol is to
be designed specifically for that child.
With this in mind Jordan was sent home with a set of exercises
to perform specifically designed to meet his unique needs. Two weeks
later he was again seen, reassessed and treated at the clinic. He
was sent home with a computer program designed in Holland that can
be modified to meet the individual needs of the
patient. In this particular case Jordan had to use the program daily
for two sessions of just six minutes.
After two weeks the clumsiness had gone, his confidence
was rocketing and his school teachers had reported back
to his parents the remarkable changes they had
noticed in him. They were unaware at that time that he had had any
treatment.
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