I've raised £8000 to to fund specialist treatment for my special needs twins at the National Light and Sound Therapy Centre in London.
Organised by Diane Dean
Story
My beautiful daughters, Sophie and Katie, were born with severe motor and verbal, and oral dyspraxia. After years of speech and language therapies, we've had very little success. Both girls find communication extremely difficult as they only have a vocabulary of approximately twenty words. This is incredibly frustrating for them and it would be absolutely amazing if there were a way to increase their vocabulary and enable them to speak.
They have a voice and it deserves to be heard. It would be simply mind blowing to hear them say someone's name or to ask for something to eat. Instead, all they can do is sign in a limited way and make sounds that sometimes come close to speech.
After years of searching, we've found an amazing form of therapy that encorporates both light and sound stimuli over the course of ten days. They theorise that those with limited speech have neurological pathways that are entangled and therefore wired incorrectly. If this is the case, both Sophie and Katie could actually be speaking to us , but the words simply come out as unintelligible sounds due to the muscles used for speech being misaligned.
If the therapy is successful, my girls would be able to speak to us for the first time. Even if we were to hear them say our names or be able to form words to tell us whether they're happy or sad.
T. Revell, Doncaster: “I thought I would let you know how Alex’s speech is progressing. In the two weeks since our visit he has gained 40 new words which is wonderful. We have had such a variety of words from ‘plug’ to ‘Yorkshire.’ I am really delighted with his progress.
A. Hasnip, Woodbridge, Suffolk: “The changes seen in Daniel have been very good. I have noticed that his speech is clearer and his vocabulary is now vast. His teacher has noticed his speech has improved and she said she tried to think she was imagining it but could not do this. He seems calmer, although he still has his outbursts, but don’t all children!
Find out more about the National Light and Sound Therapy Centre.
