How can one treatment help such a wide range of problems?

Ok so this is the difficulty…..how can Brainchild help so many different types of special needs? ‘Surely I should be using an intervention specific to my son’s autism?’ I asked myself that question all that time ago when I first met Viv.

So to put it simply, it is because many of the behaviours associated with our children’s problems stem from a developmental starting point.

For many reasons a stage in the brains development has been missed, interrupted or skipped completely. Brainchild helps to address that particular area of development.

Autism diagnosis depends upon a huge checklist of difficulties. That is why when it was suggested J had autism I found every reason to convince myself that it was wrong. When I looked at a checklist it was obvious he was not a savant or a hand flapper or in his own world ….come on ….he seemed to smile and laugh…..

I was lucky as a fantastic nursery assistant had spotted behaviours and alerted me to the problems that were happening for my son aged 2. The process was long and no help was available. I took the bull by the horns and booked a paediatricians appointment. The LEA Nursery that my son attended followed up and began assessments from the whole gamut of professionals that are involved in the diagnosis process. Finally I came across Brainchild by accident through word of mouth and a few chance meetings.

I now understand that each area of difficulty related to a particular development that my son had missed or not moved into. The program addressed each of these in a logical sequence.

Now I am going through a huge transition stage with my son as he has just started mainstream secondary school.

I recognise that many of his behaviours can be linked to his Moro reflex so I need to work on that with him now. The Moro seems to be one that can be affected by stress and trauma. It is the one infant reflex that is unstable – it can re-activate. Funny that it has also been a stressful time for me too – perhaps I should do some work on my own Moro!

It is great that I have been given the tools to help my son once again – now I just have to work out how to do it with an older child that is trying to be less dependent on me! Teenagers!