Connor started on the Dore programme on 18th July 2006. We had been down a long road of therapists including occupation therapy, speech and Language therapy, educational psychologists etc. He was battling with Dyspraxia and concentration. He took things very literally and couldn’t differentiate tones in voices, so sarcasm was completely lost on him.
As a result of all these things his self-esteem was extremely low and he battled to make friends. He couldn’t look people in the eye, especially adults. The paediatrician eventually put him on a trial course of Strattera, which made him have terrible mood swings, and at times psychotic.
Two months into the Dore programme he stopped Strattera. We slowly started seeing changes in him. If he saw a friend outside of school, he called out to him, smiled and waved. Before if he saw a friend when he was out he would hide his face and get upset. His handwriting improved dramatically. For the first time ever he made a special friend. He started to enjoy life instead of retreating into his own world. This year he ran in his school sports day and won all his races. Last year he broke down and ended up not participating. He also stood up in assembly and recited a poem. He never would have done that before. It has been a long road with ups and downs. Mostly Connor has been quite cooperative in doing his exercises, but we have had days when he hasn’t felt like it and when I haven’t felt like it especially in the holidays but we have just carried on.
I t has been worth the work and sacrifice more than I could tell anyone. I now have a confident well-adjusted child who is able to grow to his full potential. With the support of the wonderful staff at the Dore centre and our faith in God we have been able to achieve this.