Successes
Successes
Our founder, Andrew Brereton was asked the other day if the extraordinary level of success that Snowdrop is achieving in treating children with developmental disabilities is just a recent phase, to which he replied, 'no; - it happens consistently!' The lady asking the question was a mum of a little girl who first approached us 4 months ago enrolled her daughter on the Snowdrop programme. She had witnessed her little girl make the most remarkable progress and had seen other parents reporting the progress their children were making on Snowdrop's Facebook group
Let me give some examples of our recent successes. We will
not use real names for reasons of confidentiality, but most of our
parents are open to being contacted and will readily talk about
their children's successes.
First of all, let's take Steven; - a little boy with severe ADHD
and pronounced auditory processing problems. Steven literally
could not stop! His parents were unable to take him anywhere
because of this and family life was very quickly breaking
down. Steven could also not bear to hear high pitched sound,
clapping, loud noise in general and in particular he could not
tolerate anyone singing. His reaction to being exposed to
these sound was to descend into a self injurious meltdown where he
would repeatedly bang his head against the wall. As a
consequence of his auditory processing problems, Steven's language
production was non - existent. Steven has now been on the
Snowdrop programme for a year and the difference is
startling. He walked into his last assessment and calmly sat
in a chair, his auditory processing issues were not just
diminished, they were GONE! He was now speaking in 7 - 8 word
sentences and mum and dad were able to take him for days out
without him running wild! Yes, he is still a 'work in
progress' but what a difference!
Then there is little Lisa, who suffered terrible injuries at
birth, leaving her with only 25% of her brain intact. In
dad's own words her prognosis was "savage" and she was expected to
be blind, deaf and quadriplegic. She was expected to be
totally dependent in every way for every aspect of her care for the
rest of her life. We first saw her when she was 6 weeks old
and not much bigger than a milk bottle. She has been on the
Snowdrop programme for 15 months and she can see, hear and is
starting to try to feed herself. She is trying to crawl, (and
soon will be) and has the visual and auditory cognition of a three
year old. She is also beginning to talk.
Ben is a recent addition to the programme. He is 25 years
old and has profound autism. Mum has done a variety of
programmes down the years, all to no effect. Ben has never
once smiled in all his life, has severe auditory and tactile
hyper-sensitivity and finds communication of any form to be
extremely threatening. Ben began the Snowdrop programme
approximately 2 months ago. Last week mum called me to tell
me that she had never seen such a dramatic change in Ben in the 25
years of his life. She was in tears as she told me that he
had looked at her and smiled (and so were we)! He had also
begun to communicate, only in 'grunts' but it is a start and she
was so happy that for the first time in his life, he seemed
happy.
Little Patsy is 2 years old, is hyperactive, has CVI, (cortical
visual impairment) and has severe communication problems. Her MRI
shows significant injury in many places. She has been on
programme for just 5 months and is now calm, is able to see and is
beginning to use her vision appropriately and her hand function,
which was previously at birth levels has progressed to where she
can bang on a xylophone with a wooden stick.
Incredible.
David is almost two years old and has been on the Snowdrop
programme for just a year. He suffered a bad intraventicular
haemmorage when he was born and also periventricular
leukomalacia. By all rights he should not have escaped this
without incurring significant problems. Mum and dad were
'switched on' about this and fortunately they contacted us
immediately. Today, he is indistinguishable in every way from
an uninjured child of his age. At his last assessment I had
trouble catching him, he was up on his feet and off as quickly as
he could. Great to see!
Anji is only months old and is a little girl from the United
States. She has been diagnosed with severe cerebral palsy,
but again mum and dad were astute enough to enrol on Snowdrop's
distance programme and have now been on programme for only two
months. Anji was not using her vision at all, was very
anxious, (which suggests sensory overload) and made no attempt to
make eye - contact, look at faces and the only sound she made was a
high pitched scream. We put in place activities designed to
calm the situation and to stimulate her vision. I received a
call from a very pleased and excited dad last week stating that she
was now visually following him across the room and was so much
calmer. -Lots of work still to do, but the changes have
begun!
Kristen is a little girl from Canada, who suffered severe brain
injuries at birth and who was never expected to use the limbs on
the right side of her body. Again, mum and dad enrolled her
on the Snowdrop 'distance
programme' immediately and have worked like trojans, day
in, day out for the past year to stimulate her development.
Today, she is walking, talking and is indistinguishable (and in
some areas developmentally superior), from her twin
sister.
Ella is a two year old girl from Australia and has a rare genetic
abnormality which would severely affect her development and
learning in almost every area. Mum and dad enrolled her on
the distance programme just over a year ago. We didn't really
know what to expect having not treated this particular condition
before, (there are only 250 children in the world who have
it). She is doing really well and is defying
expectations. She is making developmental gains in the face
of strong genetic forces which are working against her and is a
bright, happy, interactive little girl. She has just begun to
pull herself to stand!
Matt is a real character. He is going to be an all
Australian superhero. He is just over a year old and suffered
a stroke at birth which wiped out virtually all of the left side of
his brain. His mum was told that he would be hemiplegic, that he
would never crawl, walk, or be able to do much of anything.
He has been on the distance programme for around 8 months and his
mum recently posted two videos of him on the Facebook group.
The first video is of him taking his first steps, the second is of
him playing with a 'shape sorting' toy with that infamous right
hand and doing very well at it too. Go Matt!
We were talking to the mum of little Michael yesterday. She
was upset because she couldn't bring him for his assessment
because he has the 'flu.' Michael is exceptionally
hyperactive and has terrible auditory processing problems, (the two
seem to go together in many children). He has been on
programme for five months and mum was saying that his auditory
problems are now reduced to a level where he can tolerate playing
with other children. She was also able to take him to the
theatre the other day, (although she admitted to sitting at the
back near the door in order to escape quickly should it be
necessary) and Michael sat quietly through the entire
production! Progress indeed!
Now little Adam's mum and dad played a wonderful trick on us a few
weeks back. Adam was experiencing a morass of sensory
processing problems which were causing all sorts of problems with
motor development, language development, hand function and social
development. He had only been on programme for 5 months and
we were nervously waiting for them to arrive for their
reassessment, wondering how Adam had progressed. When they
arrived, the placed Adam on his feet, on the floor and he walked
across the room!
We travel to see Oliver in his own home because he has a
tracheostomy and needs oxygen. He suffers with hydrocephaly
and has significant brain injuries, which if he had been left alone
would have caused serious disability. Fortunately, mum and
dad didn't accept the status quo and contacted us whilst he was
only months old. He has been on programme for just about a
year and is doing superbly. Mum sent us a video of him
walking the other day. He is also understanding lots and lots
of language and generally developing well. What a different
story it could have been.
Holly is 17 months old (adjusted), she was 3 months premature and
suffered extensive brain injuries. She first came to see us 4
months ago and she was experiencing severe sensory processing
distortions. she was also unable to use her vision in any
meaningful way. The little one was experiencing sensory
chaos! Four months later she is using her vision at almost
her age level, she is at her age level in auditory development, her
tactile sensitivities have largely disappeared and she is just at
'pre-speech' levels in language development. Again we have a
mum and dad who have worked their socks off.
Finally we have Finn. We use his real name because you are
about to be directed to a newspaper article about him. Finn
was in a terrible state when we first saw him having suffered
hydrocephalus and meningitis. He would simply sit in a chair and
stare vacantly ahead. In short, he was going nowhere!
Three years on the Snowdrop programme and you can read about him
yourself here
These are just a few of our major successes; - they are genuine
and as we say, many of our parents are very happy to talk to other
families who want to know more about the Snowdrop
programme. You can click here to see some of the children in
action on our youtube page.
To our parents whose children haven't been mentioned, we're sorry,
It doesn't mean that your successes are any less important, - we
just ran out of time. We will include you next time!
Click here to read about what parents have said about their childrens' success on the Snowdrop programme.
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