Category: Adults with Learning Disabilities
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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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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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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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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…
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Vocal Toning and Energy Alignment
This is an excerpt from Positive Health Online Issue 179 – February 2011. The full article can be found at: Vocal Toning and Energy Alignment My interest in the voice and creative expression led to training in Speech and Language Therapy, deepening my understanding of the mechanics of speech, the nature of impairment and its impact…