Author: Jennifer Warters
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A Shocking Silence
Billy was thirty five years old when we met, he lived in a residential care home with two other men who had severe learning disabilities. I was told, ‘Billy doesn’t talk, he hasn’t said anything for years’. When I questioned further, they believed that he understood what was said to him. Tragically, when Billy was…
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Healing for Adults with Learning Disability.
EMPOWERING THE CLIENT Orthodox symptom focused therapy that endeavours to address impaired communication and social interaction, will not be effective in the long term, unless the feelings of the client and their support team are acknowledged, accepted and prioritised. Initially, as a speech and language therapist and later as principal and senior tutor therapist of…
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It’s My Turn Now
Caroline was a forty six year old woman, who was referred by her doctor because of learning difficulties and deafness. The doctor hoped that any attempt to improve Caroline’s pronunciation of speech sounds would improve her communication and quality of life. Caroline had had a cleft palate repair as a child and lack of oxygen…
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Missing Grandma
Ten year old Henry, was referred to me by his paediatrician who was concerned about his deteriorating health. She wondered if Henry was still grieving for his grandmother, who had unexpectedly died twelve months earlier. Henry had had a close relationship with his Grandma and both he and his mother would have been traumatised by…
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My name’s Norman
Norman, a forty eight year old man with learning disabilities, was also blind. He was small in stature and looked permanently worried. I was told that his vision had been severely impaired after he had sustained a detached retina in both eyes at the age of 43. Unfortunately, he had refused to stay in bed…
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Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Having worked for several years in a school for children who were severely physically and intellectually disabled, I came to the conclusion that children with communication impairment prefer to be involved with music, movement and play rather than those activities that have an expectation of interaction. However when there is a difficulty with communication, the…
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Healing a Stammer Revealed Hidden Talents
When Paul was referred to me, I was in the midst of juggling my work as a speech and language therapist within the NHS in the north of England with my Academy of Spiritual Sciences Post Grad holistic therapy training. I received an urgent telephone call from Paul’s sister asking for help with her brother…
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Lego was the Key
Lenny at ten years old, was the oldest of four children. The family’s Health Visitor had noted his delayed development and limited communication when he was two years old. He was subsequently seen by a variety of professionals and submitted to repeated episodes of intervention in an endeavour to effect some improvement, with limited success.…
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Finbar the Dragon Slayer
My work in Ireland introduced me to some amazingly creative children. One of them was a little boy called Finbar. I only saw him twice but he taught me that children are able to quickly gain what they need in a space free from judgement and expectation with a variety of versatile props to allow…
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Yellow is a Feeling
Jim had learning disabilities and lived in a Residential Home with five other men. He was in his early fifties and was referred to me with anxiety and depression in the hope that I could discover what was causing his unhappiness. Jim had a very limited vocabulary of single words. A word he used continuously…