Healing
Stories
Susan's
Client
by
Susan Spencer
Susan
was an HK teacher in England for several years before she
retired from teaching. She continues to practice HK in
West Sussex, England.* She sent us this case history about
her young client, Tom.
Tom was
born with poor coordination and muscle control, but the reason
was never determined. His parents noticed how much he was falling
over once he started walking, and he would never attempt to
climb as do most toddlers. He appeared rather floppy, and his
physical reactions were slow, making him look generally awkward.
Tom's speech
did not develop as expected since his mouth and tongue
muscles were also poorly controlled. He had very few words, and
they
were mostly mispronounced. He had difficulty with
consonant sounds in the middle of words: “daddy” was “da-ee”.
He was quite intellectually alert, but he chose not to try
to communicate verbally since it was so hard for him to be
understood. Beginning at age 3½ Tom was given
regular speech therapy. He was systematically taught
how to produce
all the sounds of speech, then to fit them into single
words and gradually into groups of words. When he
did start to speak,
the simple words and expressions that he wanted just
did not come to him. Rather than attempt a difficult
word, he would
often describe the word instead. His speech was still
very disjointed and almost impossible to follow.
Despite all
his frustrations, Tom had the personality, mental ability,
and determination to cope with his situation. He made significant
progress when an Educational Kinesiology practitioner taught
him to cross-crawl. A new world of physical freedom opened
up to him. He made progress bit by bit, but it seemed like
trying to fill a barrel with a teacup. When he started school
his speech was immature but understood by his classmates, and
his movements, although still rather clumsy, did not hold him
back. Most importantly he was one of the class; all of them
had strengths and weaknesses, and his did not stand out from
the others.
Although
Tom's situation had improved over the years, he still had his
problems. After a couple of years of no therapy at all, Tom's
mother heard me give a talk on HK and thought that the HK approach
might well benefit Tom further. Tom has had HK sessions every
3 months for the past 18 months. The priority issues which
have been addressed have come in an obvious sequence: gross
motor control, fine motor control, speech and communication,
and social interaction. Tom has always been very cooperative,
as he is eager not to seem “different” from his
peers, and he realizes how much he has benefitted from his
HK sessions.
Tom has made
excellent progress. He reads aloud now, acts in front of an
audience, plays the piano, swims and plays football, and it
is no longer obvious that he has had problems. He will soon
be 9 years old and has a brightness about him that nobody thought
would ever appear. There are still a few problems remaining,
but everyone is confident that with the support of HK and the
continued effort and determination of Tom and his parents,
those remaining challenges will soon be overcome.
*Susan
is listed as an HK Practitioner on the HK site in the United
Kingdom www.hk4health.co.uk
Look under West Sussex.
