Penny was a normal developing child to age of two until an unexplained acquired brain injury accrued. Help Just4Children to provide Penny with essential functional neurological treatment in New York.
Penny is a 6 year old child from Ballyclare in County Antrim with many daily challenges. Penny was born in 2016 a younger sister to Riley.
Penny had a developmental regression at 2 years causing an acquired brain injury robbing of her many skills. She had developed “normally” in line with milestones and her peers until this point.
She stopped doing many of the things she once had. Her speech regressed and eventually stopped completely, making Penny non verbal since 2019. Penny’s acquired brain injury has caused many problems and blockages to her development.
Penny has Auditory processing disorder (APD) which affects how her brain interprets sound rather than how sound is carried through the ear to the brain making it incredibly hard for Penny to understand verbal communication. Penny’s gross motor skills were also severely impaired. Penny has undergone a great amount of physio. However, she still struggles to walk without assistance.
In addition, Penny has been diagnosed with Cerebral Vision Impairment (CVI) which is a form of visual impairment caused by the brain not being able to process information from the eyes passing along the visual pathways in the brain.
Being unable to find rehabilitation from conventional medicine, we as a family have had to look outside for private and alternative treatments and it was there that we began to find hope that we could find our little girl again.
The level of care Penny needs has prevented Penny accessing traditionally childcare and her (mum Heather) from working full time. This has led to our family being under considerable financial strain due to the level of expenditure required to fund the effective therapies.
Due to Covid and travel restrictions Penny and Heather have been unable to access international therapy. However, with restrictions lifted Penny and Heather have accessed a week intensive therapy with Dr Robert Melillo with one of the world’s most sought after and respected experts in Developmental Functional Neurology in New York on the 1st October.
Please give your support.
Follow Penny on Instagram
