IZABELLA'S STORY
When my daughter Isabella turned 13 months, I had a nagging feeling that something wasn't quite right. Other babies had started to gesture and say the odd word whereas Isabella didn't. However even this didn't concern us as much as the way she'd play so aimlessly. For example she didn't seem interested in exploring her environment, toys weren't played with in a functional way, you'd have to call her several times before she would look at you. She seemed to be in her own world.
When she was about 14 months old we started on our journey to try and find out what was wrong. The following months we went on a "doctor-merry-go-round": GP's, specialists, all sorts of experts in children's development. She was too young to have a definitive diagnosis made but things seemed to point towards either autism, a speech disorder and/or dyspraxia. Finally we were recommended a speech pathologist whom we started to see in August. Isabella was 19 months old by this stage. Her language should have started to develop however she only had about two words. At this age a lot of the therapy revolved around activities or actions that my husband and I could do in order to encourage language development. Every week we had different activities that we undertook with her including introducing her to pretend play by playing "tea parties" with dolls and getting her to pretend that she was pouring tea and eating biscuits, or letting her play in the sandpit or garden. A lot of activities revolved around "messy play" which were meant to stimulate her, encourage her to explore and hopefully speak.
As the weeks passed the speech pathologist handed down her diagnosis. We were told that she definitely wasn't autistic. She didn't have a speech disorder as by now she had a few more words and there was nothing disordered about what she was saying. She seemed to show signs of dyspraxia but the speech pathologist was still uncertain about this. The main issue she had was a Sensory Integration Dysfunction.
Sensory Integration involves the process that the body goes through to collect information regarding our environment. The brain collects information through touch, smell, movement, sound, sight, taste, and body awareness. It then organizes the information so that we can interact with our environment through gross motor skills ( having coordinated body movement ), fine motor skills ( a good pencil grip ), self-care activities (getting dressed), playing ( comfortable staying with one activity for a long time ) and learning/social behaviors ( good concentration span ). When there is a dysfunction in this process the coordination, social and behavioral development is affected and there is a type of "brain confusion". This can impact language development greatly as the brain finds it hard to retrieve and use words. Isabella had problems ( and in some cases still has ) with touch ( didn't like the feel of certain knitted fabric close to her body ), movement ( constantly trying to swing on things ), body awareness ( lacked coordination and would bump into things ), sound ( missed verbal instructions ), sight ( easily visually distracted ) and taste ( puts everything and anything in her mouth ).
For most children sensory integration develops in the course of ordinary childhood activities without conscious awareness. For others like Isabella it does not happen spontaneously and the child has to be exposed to sensory stimulation.
Finally, after many months of anxiety we knew what we were dealing with. The speech pathologist suggested that we join EDP. As well as doing a few Occupational Therapy sessions. This was in November 2001 last year and it marked a turning point in Isabella's development. Occupational Therapy used different types of mainly larger play equipment such as specially designed swings, ball pools and trampolines for its classes. Isabella thought it was great fun even though she was made to work quite hard. Often she would fall asleep on the way home. EDP sessions have also provided a play-based environment using mainly smaller type toys and have incorporated highly stimulating sensory activities such as finger painting. The input from EDP's specialised staff ( physiotherapy, special education, speech therapy ) has been valuable. Whilst working with Isabella on a one-on-one basis they have been able to give a good overview of her progress.
Isabella is now a different child. She has come out of her world and is quite sociable and interested in her surroundings. Although her language is still delayed for her age it has improved dramatically. We hope that she is in catch up mode, for which we are very thankful.
Click on one of the following links to read about these children and their families.
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Samuel now 2 has a vision impairment and associated delays.
Georga has started kindy now. She was a floppy baby at birth and has recently started having seizures.
Matthew is 3 and enjoys life. His development has improved incredibly since the early days.
Izabella has dispraxia. Find out her parents worries, fears and hopes.
A grandparent shares his wishes, joys and fears with respect to his disabled grandson.