Joe - ADHD, Tics & Asthma

Joe has continued to move forward, He is happy at school and he achieves well. He is still statemented and felt to have a specific language disorder and in some areas of learning this causes problems for him. The main areas of difficulty are creative writing and reading comprehension. He also has some problems with inferencing in science, and generalising knowledge beyond the actual investigation. Some of the language used in maths is difficult for him. However he was the only child to get 10 out of 10 for mental maths in his class the other day and he got to stand up in assembly because of it. Socially he has made huge strides. He now plays with a group or children every day and is able to maintain the interaction rather than initiating it as he used to and then wandering away. He still sees his special friend who lives in Hemel Hempstead. The fact that this special friend does not go to school with Joe any more does not seem to be a problem.

During neurofeedback training we were aiming for progress in a number of areas. We feel that Joe has continued to progress in all these areas or at least maintained the level reached.

Attention/concentratlon - This is not considered to be a major problem any more although Joe still finds it hard to maintain attention during long stories. His attention tends to wander when he has lost track of the meaning.

Ticing - This is still apparent but has not got any worse

Cooperation - This is generally excellent

Asthma - Joe has not needed any becotide since we stopped neurofeedback. He gets wheezy near dose but only requires a few puffs of ventolin.

Strengths - Joe's areas of strength have got stronger eg. sociability, mathematical ability, musical ability - Joe takes his grade 2 this term having only taken two terms to prepare for it.

Joe receives 5 hours of classroom support per week for his ongoing language difficulties but he is now better able to make use of the help, she no longer has to prod him all the time to keep him on task.

The neurofeedback training helped us all enormously to focus on what was a problem and what wasn't and to become more positive about Joe's abilities and achievements. Apart from specific areas outlined above, It has helped Joe himself to become more self aware and more organised and to be more in control. Sometimes I remind him to think back to his neurofeedback training eg. when I notice ticing behaviour, and it does seem to help. My only regret is that we had to stop. It was a huge commitment financially and of our precious time and sacrifices had to be made. There needs to be a point at which you decide to stop and I think we timed it just about right.

Joe's views:

Neurofeedback helped me to stop rubbing my nose and moving my mouth, now I can sit still everywhere, now I can ignore people at school when they are being silly and get on with my work, nobody has to tell me to finish my work at all.