Arts and Craft

Well done to the team of Cherub projects on creating such lovely beaded goods to sell. Two of the members of our support group got together and decided to get their kids working. Sandy does beading on clothes for a number of major fashion stores so it was only natural that Ryan (22 with cerebral palsy) and Storm (Glenda's daughter, 18 with Down's Syndrome) got involved and decided to make the most amazing beaded products. They also make very unusual gift boxes out of coke bottles by cutting them in a certain way and then decorating them using decoupage.

If anyone out there drinks a lot of coke, then please save your bottles and we will collect them from you. They must be the 2 litre plastic bottles and only coke - nothing else works.

On another note, the last 2 group meetings have been very interesting. Sorry for the delay in updates. In June we met at Sandy's house and Ian, father of a young man with cerebral palsy, gave us a very interesting talk on his experiences in the world of special needs children. We had an interesting debate on the merits of keeping your child at home with you vs putting them into a home. Basically the conclusion is that different things work for different people, depending on their circumstances. Lots more lively debates on a variety of topics.

July's meeting was at my house. We met a new member (hopefully) and ended up chatting till 1am, much to my husband's surprise when he arrived home out from an evening out expecting to find everyone gone and me asleep! It was a good meeting.

Next meeting and NRT therapy

Our next group meeting is on Thursday 14/6 at Sandy's house, including partners. Please see my latest mail or if you need details just drop me a line, my email link is in my profile.

Note from Sue about the NRT therapy:

We have found a venue for the seminar. It will be held at Bel Porto School 2 Arcadia Ave Landsdown at 10am on Saturday 14^th July. Please pass this message on as we feel the need to bring the awareness of this therapy to all who will benefit. The costs of the seminar is R200 per family (all this does is cover the costs of air fares). We will be holding the assessments and training at my home in Tokai. The assessments will be on the Saturday afternoon and possibly the Sunday morning and the training starts on Monday 16^th July to the Friday 20^th July. The training costs R3,600 for the week and consists of 2 hours a day. To those who are coming please let me know preferred times as soon as possible.

So look forward to hearing from you and meeting up.

Bless you all,

Much love,

Sue Webster

Please phone and chat if you have any queries.

O12-712-4955

0832636837

Celina and the NRT

Hi everybody
Just wanted to let you know what the NRT has done for Celina in just 3 Month.
She is far more alert and her back has straightened out amazingly. I attached a photo with he before and 3 month later so that you can see the wonderful change.
Now after another 1 1/2 month with the new exercises she starts making lots of sounds and is even more alert.
After only one month Celina's diaphragm was visibly working again and her breathing improved greatly. I can just say please consider this for your children. The next seminar will be on the 14. July 2007. Please let me now if you are interested and want to come. It is really worth it. This is the first and only therapy which has really shown big changes in short time in Celina.
I believe with God's help that Celina is going to walk and talk again this year.
Lots of Love and God bless you
Manuela

Scotson Technique Seminar

A new lease on life for brain damaged children

The 11 candles on the cake are lit and all eyes are on the little girl with blond hair, cornflower blue eyes and flawless skin as they start singing 'Happy Birthday' to her. Her response, as always, is to break into peals of delighted laughter.

The cake is just the accessory to the act; it’s the music that 11-year old Rebekah Ryan adores. That's because she can't see the cake and the music lifts her soul in a way her feet never will. Rebekah is severely physically and mentally brain damaged. She was born not breathing and two months premature. While frantic doctors successfully revived her, Rebekah's brain did not develop as it should. Today she is unable to walk, to sit unaided, to feed herself, to see and speak coherently. She has a curvature in her spine which is becoming more pronounced as she grows. Soon doctors will suggest the spine be straightened with a metal rod that will be put into her back in a painful operation she will not understand.

Yet Rebekah has not been consigned to an institution, left to dribble and degenerate in front of a meaningless TV screen. Instead her family has tried every therapy imaginable in a ceaseless effort to improve her life. However, aside from maintaining her health, these efforts have led to no obvious improvements in her physical or mental condition.

Until now.

Eight months ago Rebekah's caregivers flew to Johannesburg to try a new therapy they had been recommended. Known as The Scotson Technique (TST), it is a therapy for children and teens with brain injuries and disorders. It was developed and introduced in South Africa in 2005 by Linda Scotson, a UK national whose son was born with cerebral palsy.

The technique is a deeply restorative rehabilitation therapy that works on the weak respiratory system of a person with a brain injury or abnormality. Restoring the thoracic and abdominal respiratory muscles leads to an improvement in, among other things, blood supply, nutrition and nervous response to under-developed muscles and the connective tissues between the bones, and the electrical connection between the brain and the muscular skeletal system. Using this therapy, children of all ages are showing steady improvements in muscle, bone and cognitive development.

In Rebekah's case the improvements in 8 months have been remarkable: for the first time in 11 years she sleeps through the night; for the first time in 11 years she has regular and unassisted bowel movements. She is also trying to communicate and articulate sounds and there are signs of a relaxation in her hunched shoulders and an easing of the curvature of the spine. This is just the beginning. While the family is not daring to think about where this treatment could take them, they are allowing themselves to believe and hope that the improvements will continue.

For people with a natural spring in their step it is near impossible to understand the daily difficulties encountered by people with brain damage and those who care for them.

Rebekah's improvements are not unique. There are a number of other families – some in South Africa and others in the UK, that are seeing the changes in their children after implementing TST in their own homes.

Emily was four years old when introduced to the Scotson Technique. She is a quadraplegic spastic with partial vision. Unable to eat, she was fed by naso-gastric tube, she screamed constantly, suffered from acid reflux and was physically stiff.

After 6 months of her parents practicing the Scotson Technique on her she stopped having seizures, she came off all her medication and began to eat food orally. Her body began to relaxing and her vision improved. “The changes in Emily seem unbelievable,” said her parents in a therapy feedback session. “We are very happy.”

Linda Scotson, who has developed this technique in the UK, will be presenting a 2hour workshop on the therapy in Cape Town on the 24th of March from 10h00 to 12h30 at the Mountainview Baptist Church, Main Road, Lakeside. The workshop, which costs R200, will detail the origins of the therapy, how and why it works and how parents, grandparents and caregivers can be trained as therapists.

If families are interested, the workshop can be followed up with assessments and training.

Contact Sue Webster for info: 021 712 4955 / 083 263 6837, suewebster@icon.co.za.

Assessments will be held the afternoon of March 24 and require booking
Training – Monday March 27 to March 30 – costs R3600

Next Group Meeting

The next meeting will be on 8 March at 7:30pm at Sandy's place. Leave a comment with your email address if you need directions.

Family Day

We had a great family day at Camphills Village. I was hoping to post some pictures but since I upgraded to the 'fancy new blogger' I cannot post pictures! Go figure. Anyway, we met Louise and her family who have been wanting to meet us for ages.

Farewell little Meah

It is with great sadness that we have to say goodbye to little Meah who passed away on Saturday morning. We all send our sympathies and lots of love to Deidre and her family. The funeral is tomorrow morning at Our Lady help of Christians in Lansdowne at 10am tomorrow morning. Farewell little angel Meah, I am sure our Kendra has already welcomed you with open arms.

"I'll lend you for a little time a child of mine" He said
"For you to love the while she lives, and mourn for when she's dead.
It may be 6 or 7 years, or twenty-two or three,
But will you till I call her back, take care of her for Me:
She'll bring her charm to gladden you, and should her stay be brief,
You'll have her lovely memories as solace for your grief.

I cannot promise she will stay, since all from earth return.
But there are lessons taught down there, I want this child to learn.
I've looked the wide world over in my search for teachers true.
And from the throngs that crowd life's lanes, I have selected you.
Now will you give her all your love nor think the labour vain.
Nor hate Me when I come to call, to take her back again."

I fancied that I heard them say: "Dear Lord, Thy will be done.
For all the joy Thy child shall bring, the risk of grief we'll run.
We'll shelter her with tenderness, we'll love her while we may.
And for the happiness we've known, forever grateful stay:
But should the angels call for her much sooner than we planned,
We'll brave the bitter grief that comes and try to understand."

A verse by Edgar Guest (I used poetic license to change the gender of the child in the original verse).