Already as a baby, our white-haired son, Hendrik, was different from his three older brothers and older sister. For example, it was difficult to get him into a routine. He was very restless and did not easily accept ‘no’ for an answer.
Hendrik started talking late, almost at the same time as his brother who is 18 months younger. We only really noticed that he was behind in his language development when his cousin of the same age came to visit. We ascribed this to the fact that he had fluid in his ears and had to be fitted with grommets. We immediately started speech therapy.
At three years, upon the recommendation of our GP, we took him to a paediatrician, who performed some tests. She confirmed our suspicion that he was very far behind. She diagnosed Attention Deficit Disorder and immediately prescribed Ritalin. We did not continue with the Ritalin for very long, because it actually made his problems worse. We had better results by following a healthy diet, which excluded refined foods and sugar, and by including vitamin and mineral supplements. Upon the recommendation of the paediatrician Hendrik was placed in a nursery school where he would receive extra stimulation. However, Hendrik only adapted to the nursery school with great difficulty.
Hendrik started school with great expectation. During his Grade 1 year his teacher — who had many years of experience — noticed that his reading, spelling and sentence construction were below standard. We spent extra time on these but to no avail. Hendrik’s classmates started teasing him with the result that he no longer wanted to go to school. We as his parents knew that Hendrik was not unintelligent at all. We knew that he had above-average ability, but that something was keeping him back.
For quite some time we took Hendrik to an occupational therapist in the hope that the basis of his problem may be co-ordination. His cousin had a learning difficulty that was apparently alleviated in this way. However, the occupational therapy did not make any difference that is at all worth mentioning.
We started wondering whether Hendrik did not maybe have a hearing problem, because sometimes he did not react to instructions. We approached the psychology department at the Potchefstroom University, where there is an audiophonology section where stutterers can go for help. Hendrik never even got as far as audiophonology because several psychometrical tests indicated that his problems were more serious than we had anticipated. It was a miracle — they said — that he had passed Grade 1. We were advised to send him to a remedial school, because there he would receive the comprehensive attention he needed, that would include speech therapy, psychological help and occupational therapy. During the second quarter of his Grade 2 year he was sent to a remedial school in Meyerton.
Very soon we started to realise that the great sacrifice in terms of time and money and the daily to-and-fro trips between Alberton (our hometown) and Meyerton were not delivering any dividends. Hendrik was the only pupil in his class who did not receive Ritalin (or some other similar medication) on a daily basis. He made progress as a result of the personal attention of the class teacher in a relatively small class, but many of the other promised services disappointed us. Hendrik often complained about his classmates and more than once he said that they were not stupid but very naughty.
During this time we heard about Audiblox and made further enquiries. Everybody, with whom we spoke that had had previous experience of it, were full of praise. We were at our wit’s end because nothing had delivered any reasonable results, so we decided to give it a go. During July 1999 Hendrik did the two-week intensive course in Pretoria. This was followed by daily Audiblox practice sessions of an hour each, six days per week.
Very soon we started seeing results. Already by September 1999 Hendrik was reading Grade 4 books. (At the beginning of the year he could read Grade 1 books only with great difficulty.) Hendrik brought home good reports from school and the teacher was astounded by his fast progress. We realised that a remedial school was not the right place for Hendrik. After completing the year in the remedial school, we enrolled him in his old school again, where he adapted very quickly.
Hendrik is now in Grade 4. Because the family has in the meantime moved again, he has had to change school once more. He is now in a small private Christian school. Although he receives personal attention in school — something that is not possible in the large classes of public schools — we have no doubt that, to a high degree, his progress is to be attributed to the perceptual development, discipline and self-confidence that Audiblox had given him. His school reports speak for themselves, with averages of 90% and 91%. In Maths he is already doing Grade 6 work.
Helena Krüger
(Letter translated)
Helena Krüger Hendrik's mother
