Category: Jennifer Warters
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It’s Never Too Late
My mother Betty was born in 1921. She was the youngest daughter of Alice and Enos Sherborne. Her mother Alice had been a milliner and a window dresser for Harrods, the now famous department store in London. Alice married Enos, a cabinet maker and they had six children. Betty was the youngest daughter. After leaving…
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Susie and Chopin
Susie, a woman in her forties had learning disabilities and had difficulty expressing herself. Her mother, with whom she had lived, had passed away two years earlier and since that time Susie had lived in a residential home with four other women she hadn’t previously known. Susie was referred to me because the care staff…
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Vocal Toning: Rainbow Chakra Tones
Toning is an ancient and powerful method of using the voice. The toning process energises the brain and stimulates and regenerates the central nervous system to activate the body’s own self-healing mechanism. Ancient cultures in both the northern and southern hemisphere understood the law of vibration and recognised sound as energy in motion, acknowledging that…
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A Musical Memory
Music has had a marked impact on the life of many of my clients with learning disabilities. I particularly remember one lady, who was referred to me because, although she was forty- four, she had never spoken. However, staff in her residential home believed that Jean understood most of what was said to her. One…
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Restoring Peace to the Home
My experience as a foster mother of young children and also as a speech and language therapist in community and hospital clinics, has shown me that behaviour problems inhibit other aspects of development. I eventually left my profession in search of another, simpler way of working with adults and children with complex needs. Having studied…
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Angela Finds Her Voice
Angela was a tall, frail looking woman in her forties with dark hair and hunched shoulders. She spoke in a whisper and rarely made eye contact. Whenever Angela left the residential home in which she lived, she clung to her support worker, linking arms wherever they walked. She had been diagnosed with a genetic condition…
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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…