Penny was a normal developing child to the age of two until an unexplained acquired brain injury accrued. Help Just4Children to provide Penny with essential therapies and specialist equipment.
Penny is a 7 year old child from Ballyclare in County Antrim with many daily challenges. Penny was born in 2016 and developed normally to the age of 2 until a dramatic brain regression took place robbing her of many skills. Penny lost her speech making Penny non verbal since 2019. Penny’s gross and fine motor skills were also severely impaired. In addition, Penny was diagnosed with Cerebral Vision Impairment (CVI) in 2022 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.
The level of care Penny needs has prevented Penny accessing traditional childcare and her (mum Heather) from working. This has led to our family being under considerable financial strain due to the level of expenditure required to fund effective therapies for Penny.
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. In 2023 Penny and her mother flew to America to complete a two week Melillo Method intensive therapy in the Melillo Centre for Developing Minds run by Dr Robert Melillo. Dr Robert Melillo is one of the world’s most sought after and respected experts in Developmental Functional Neurology. The Melillo Method is different because it looks at hemispheric integration taking the whole brain development into account. Primitive reflexes are at the bottom, or the foundation, of the nervous system. But once reflexes develop, or the lower level brain, then the hemispheres develop horizontally so that there is good communication between the two. From Penny’s initial assessment it was clear that Penny had a very severe imbalance in her right hemisphere which was leading to many of her developmental challenges.
Since returning in October and completing two home therapies each day. There has been a definite, and very positive change in Penny development since her time in New York. She is demonstrating better attention, following instructions, making choices by tapping a written word, her eye contact is better, sitting posture is more upright. We have also learnt that Penny can write with the assistance of someone stabilising her wrist. She also has demonstrated understanding of reading skills. Penny is now completing a full day at school which was never physically possible due to constant fatigue.
Unfortunately speech has still not returned and with the consultation of Dr Melillo it is advised that another 2 week intensive in America (approx £10,000 including accommodation and flights) would be extremely beneficial for Penny’s progress. Therefore, the family plan to fly out on May 27th 2024 to complete another 2 weeks intensive therapy in America. This should have significant benefits for Penny’s development.
We also hope to invest in a Avant laser (£6000) to compliment our home therapy. The laser is non-invasive device that provides specific wavelengths of light amplification which have been proven to create healing responses in the body, down to the cellular level.
We wholeheartedly appreciate everyone’s support in helping us find our little girl.
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