Luke
Developmental Delay and Autism
Luke’s development delay was picked up at his 8 month check by his Health Visitor, initially because he was “jittery” and because he was not performing the 8-month-tests as he should. Luke has been seen by many specialists and therapists and had many tests and but still has no diagnosis. He shows “autistic” characteristics but these are thought to be related to his development delay. Luke took a long time to sit up and he never really crawled. He preferred to stand up straight with his legs locked straight (to give him stability). He started to walk when he was 20 months old. He did not give eye contact and was not interested in other children, books or “play”.
TST is a turning point
We went to visit the Linda Scotson at the Advance Centre after seeing a newspaper article about the potential benefits, because Luke did not seem to progress.
We are unable to do a full set of exercises every day because he does not sit still for long enough. The main time we are able to do his exercises, are at night time when he is going to sleep.
We see steady benefits which keep going. He is much more focused and now makes much better eye contact and loves looking at books and turning the pages. He will sit down and watch his favourite DVDs. He likes being with other children and wants to interact with them.
He has much better balance, coordination, and agility. He can walk up and down steps unaided – although we still like to be close to him because he can stumble.
At last he understands what we say
He does not talk but at last he is showing that he understands what we are saying to him and he is doing much more to communicate to us about what he wants. He turns his head when his name is called and has started to tug at the top of his trousers if he wants to go the toilet.
The difference between before and after beginning TST is that we can now see that our little boy can progress.