We are blessed with a very sweet, good-natured ten-year-old. Thinking back to ten years ago when he was born, I had no idea of any issues to come. The pregnancy was routine and healthy and he was born at almost 40 weeks, seemingly a healthy baby.
When he started encountering difficulties as he got older, my husband and I thought back to his birth and realized there was very likely a lack of oxygen at some point. The Dr’s were very concerned and in a huge rush to get him out, his heart rate had gone right up in labour and he was born with the cord tightly around his neck. But he seemed a happy, content baby and we put the stress of birth behind us for the first few years.
When he reached the age nursery age, I realised he was presenting with classic selective mutism symptoms. He would be loud and chatty at home but anxious and silent in the Nursery. I also started to notice that where other children his age were able to sit and focus, he was dreamy and wasn't taking information in very efficiently. It took him forever to learn new rules and routines and his selective mutism prevented him from even asking for help when he needed it.
When he started school, they tried to brush it off as a maturity issue, hoping he would grow out of it. His speech also sounded funny; he had trouble pronouncing words correctly.
We lived in a small community and the school was not equipped to deal with children with issues and we spent many years trying to get him help. We had him assessed several times but never came back with any diagnosis. However, every expert who assessed him agreed that he struggled hugely with focusing and processing. He fell very behind his peers in school and began needing intense intervention, which the school couldn't afford so the huge expense fell
on us.
When our son was nine, we felt we couldn't keep him and our younger children in that school or community any longer, and moved to Manchester. We moved our nine-year-old and all our other children into a big mainstream school. The school was nervous to take our son, seeing the amount of intervention he needed but took a chance on him and took him in.
The first few months were a big struggle. Our children had gone from a school of 30 to a school of approximately 1000 children and for our nine-year-old, it was exceptionally overwhelming and he took a huge step back in selective mutism. Meanwhile, further assessments showed him to be way below his age group, often demonstrating a delay of four years. His school was very worried initially and didn't feel he was making satisfactory progress.
Then came a wonderful salvation in the form of OxyChai. Due to high demand, our son had been on the waiting list for a few months and an after-school space finally opened up for him. He would come home from school, have a quick bite to eat then head out to OxyChai with my husband and another boy, who had stomach health problems. Our son really enjoyed going. He got an hour to play on an iPad without disruption and while the sensation of the pressurised oxygen took a few times to get used to, he acclimated very quickly and happily. He did a full lot of 40 sessions which took around three months, as recommended by the OxyChai manager, Sara Dafner.
The results were incredible. Our son, who could barely look in a siddur before (because it was so hard to focus), was suddenly able to daven independently, finding the right pages and focus throughout. He suddenly started making huge progress in school and we were overjoyed to receive a phone call from school saying he had made massive progress in his maths. A recent speech and language report showed that he has moved from below average to average in all
areas! His reading, which used to be so hard and torturous for him, has been improving day by and because he is focusing and processing so much better, he is getting through three times the amount of work than he used to, without any of the struggle or complaint that we used to see. It is such a joy to see him pick up books and read them nowadays, something that he just couldn't do before receiving hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
All his fantastic progress has really boosted his self-confidence and he is making small but reassuring steps to overcome his selective mutism, speaking more and more and even putting his hand up in class to answer questions!
In every aspect, he is a changed child and we are so grateful to OxyChai for the incredible Centre they have set up and run.
He continues to make huge progress and is developing beautifully in all areas. Since the gap was so huge, he still has a way to go and we are hoping he can get more hyperbaric oxygen therapy in the coming months to further the phenomenal improvements we have seen.
Y.D Manchester
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