Billy* was first tested when he entered a top private nursery school. I was told that he needed both occupational and speech therapy which I agreed to without undue concern. I first found out that he had serious ‘learning problems’ at the end of the year when he was five years old and about to enter his final year at nursery school. His teacher, the principal and two school psychologists told me that Billy’s abilities were significantly below the required level for his age group and that he would probably need remedial education. On one report, under the heading ‘child’s strengths,’ the psychologist had written the word ‘none.’ I had to fight, beg and plead with the school to allow Billy to progress with his classmates to the higher nursery school class!
Although I was devastated, part of me refused to believe that there was anything wrong with my son. I instinctively knew that he was intelligent and set out to prove this. Immediately I visited bookstores and purchased a pile of workbooks and began teaching Billy formally at home. I also increased both his speech and occupational therapy sessions from once a week to twice a week.
Around the middle of the year Billy was re-tested by the school and, although an improvement was noted, the tests showed that he was still materially behind for his age group and remedial education was still everyone’s recommendation. Again I was very distressed, particularly because I had been working very hard with Billy and I felt that he had made great progress. In fact, I was more convinced than ever that he was an intelligent child who was quick to learn.
I then decided that the school was biased against Billy and that I would prove them wrong by having him independently tested by the country’s top therapists. Despite the high cost and trauma to Billy, I dragged him off to an occupational therapist, speech therapist, psychologist and remedial therapist for testing. Yet again the recommendation was for Billy to attend a remedial school. The therapists explained that a child, who had as many weaknesses as Billy did, would be unable to cope in an ordinary school. I felt totally disillusioned and confused.
The turning point came when my sister told me that she had heard wonderful reports about a programme called Audiblox. I went along to the interview with mixed feelings. On the one hand I had a glimmer of hope and on the other I was dreading the prospect of hearing more negative reports about Billy. I needn’t have worried because for the first time ever I was told that there was nothing at all wrong with Billy that could not be remedied.
I started the Audiblox pre-school programme on 6 September and, at the same time, I began to play the tapes repeatedly to solve Billy’s language problem. In the early days a difficult step for me was to stop doing formal work with Billy (there just wasn’t time). I had to re-read the Audiblox literature to reassure myself that the programme made sense and would work. I soon became confident because I was learning too. Many times I thought that Billy would not get to a higher level and many times I was pleasantly surprised. Over time, and with much evidence, I have learned not to place limits to the ability of the mind.
By the end of the year the most remarkable improvement that I had noticed was in Billy’s language skills and, as a result, I lost my motivation to play the story tapes repeatedly. Although I knew Billy was benefitting from Audiblox, my first indication that some improvement was being noticed at school came when I met the principal and his teacher. They said that he was doing a bit better and they seemed less opposed to the idea of Billy attending an ordinary school. At this stage, I decided to discontinue Billy’s speech and occupational therapy.
Billy started first grade the following year and I began to do the Audiblox programme for schoolchildren with him. At the end of the first term, I finally got the confirmation I was waiting for that Audiblox was really working. Billy’s report was full of praise about how good he was at EVERYTHING and his teacher’s comment to me was ‘academically Billy is doing very well and you certainly have nothing to worry about’. I truly feel grateful to Audiblox.
Billy’s mother
* The child’s name has been changed.
Billy's mother Billy's mother
