Our son Louis was born on 2 January 1991 at the Middelburg hospital through an emergency caesarian. Shortly after birth he had convulsions, and the next day he was transferred to Unitas Hospital in Pretoria. After a series of tests, the doctors discovered that he had a bladder infection, a shortage of calcium and magnesium, as well as a low level of oxygen in his blood. Tests done a few days later indicated that he also had a heart condition and that he was allergic to all dairy products, colourants, preservatives and eggs. After 10 days he was discharged from hospital, only to be re-admitted a week later with pneumonia. He was in hospital for 11 days. During the first four years of his life Louis battled with fever and bronchitis. He often had ear infections. Despite these problems, Louis started to sit at the age of 4 months and walked at the age of 1 year. He started to talk at the age of 6 months and was already talking short sentences by the age of 14 months. Then, at the age of 16 months, he stopped talking completely! For a period of 2 years he never spoke a word and when he needed something, would use gestures to indicate his needs. We then realised that he had a language deficit. Louis kept complaining of back pains and in 1994 the doctors established that he had an obstruction in his large intestines. Although Louis’s physical development was on standard, he needed speech and occupational therapy to aid his mental development. We enrolled him at a playgroup to see if that would not help with the language deficit. We were at our wit’s end and did not know what to do any more. Our son had no self-confidence.
In March 1997 we heard of the Audiblox program for the first time. We made an appointment to have Louis evaluated. We started with Audiblox in May 1997. It was very difficult to teach him to count, and even more difficult to teach him concepts like in front of, behind, on top of, etc. He also did not know his colours, although he was able to match objects of the same colour together. After his first month on the program, we already started to see an improvement. His program was adjusted every month.
In 1999, we enrolled Louis at Soetdoring Primary for Grade 0. He adjusted very well and was making progress, although still slow. The Audiblox program aided his development and the improvement in his speech was noticeable. Even his vocabulary increased. His teacher went to a lot of trouble to help him. She gave him special attention, which helped him to gain that last bit of self-confidence. Slowly but surely, our son was becoming more and more independent. In 2000, we once again enrolled him at Soetdoring Primary for Grade 1. This was a major achievement for him. He was so excited and enthusiastic! But his self-confidence was almost completely destroyed when, only a week after the school had re-opened, the Department of Education decided to close down all the Grade 1 to Grade 3 classes at the school, without giving any thought to the impact this might have on the children. Before he could be accepted at another school, we had to take him for an evaluation to a psychologist. We enrolled him at Middelburg Primary, where it was recommenced that he be placed in the special class. This, once again, had a detrimental effect on our son’s confidence. He did not adjust well in his new school and kept on saying that this was not his school and that he did not have a school at all. We really struggled to get him to go to school. It took nearly 2 months before he accepted the school. We realised that the move to the special class was the reason for his lack of motivation. He could not understand what was happening. It felt as if placing him in a special class destroyed all the hard work we had put in with Audiblox. Putting him in a special class was a big mistake.
In November 2000 we had him evaluated at Brainline and decided to start home schooling him on a Grade 2 level. Audiblox runs parallel with Brainline. The two programs compliment one another extremely well. Louis is now developing at a good pace and is starting to act like other children of his age.
In June 2001 he wrote his half-year exams on Brainline for Grade 2. His average was 78%! The exams highlighted a few problems that we still need to attend to. We are currently working on these problems. His speech and vocabulary are improving on a daily basis.
Thanks Audiblox, for helping us to address and solve our son’s problems. It required tremendous patience. At times, we were ready to give up, but we prayed for strength and just gritted our teeth. Without faith, none of this would have been possible. The best of it all is to see our child developing from nothing to something. As parents, this was the most amazing experience. I am extremely grateful for this experience the Lord has sent our way. We have also grown and learnt much together with our child. Home schooling is a new experience to which we had to adjust as a family. We cannot thank the Lord enough for sending Audiblox, Dr Jan and his co-workers on our way. It is just amazing to see the rate at which our son is now making progress!
Sincerely,
Mrs Wolmarans
[email protected]
(LETTER TRANSLATED)
Mrs Wolmarans Louis's mother
