From Signing to Stage School
C is a five year old who had a diagnosis of Global Developmental Delay. She was referred to Tree Tops for an assessment by school as she was showing difficulties with her fine/gross motor and independence skills.
Mum brought C to her first treatment session where she flatly refused to go to the treatment room without Mum, who explained that C suffered from attachment disorder (due to her Dad working away and moving away from other close relatives). The therapy staff encountered the same reaction in the second session but were able to convince C to let Mum go back to the waiting room if she left her bag and car keys with C.
From the outset, our therapists realised C was bright little girl who had developed a number of coping mechanisms to avoid doing tasks she was uncomfortable with e.g. by repeatedly saying ‘What?’ or saying ‘I can’t do it’ without even trying. C obviously forgot that having the ‘all-knowing’ Mum present in the first couple of sessions meant that her time to ‘get away with this’ was very limited!
The Therapy Staff also recognised that C required time to process, plan and practise anything new. They quickly found that with positive encouragement, clear verbal instruction, time to process information and plan her movements and repeating the activity a few times C could do most of the tasks asked of her. She grew hugely in confidence and in a few weeks she no longer required Mum to stay throughout the session – preferring to go down to the treatment room independently! Mum classed this as a ‘major breakthrough’.
(At the time of writing) we’re currently still working with C showing her visually how to do tasks, then repeating instructions in a clear, positive way and using some sensory equipment to help her feel her body movements. She has (and is continuing) to respond very well with her treatment and we look forward to continuing to work with her.
After working with the team here at Tree Tops C is actively taking part in lots of new activities such as dancing, singing, Karate and much more!