Sensory Processing Case Study

“When my son was eight, he suddenly started seeing double. I was surprised and concerned, and took him to the doctor, who sent us off to specialists to run tests. My son was also showing signs of dyslexia, which was concerning his teachers; he is a bright kid who was struggling to read, he confused letters such as b and d, while he was excelling in maths, sports and IT, his reading and writing were hopelessly lagging behind.

Once my son’s vision, eyes and brain were tested to be fine, the medical professionals had no further advice to give me other than that the double vision issue would likely resolve itself over time. When I asked if this was a problem related to dyslexia, the medical professionals could not comment; they told me that dyslexia is an educational problem, not a medical problem, so if I was also concerned about dyslexia, then I should seek educational support.

My son kept asking me what we were doing about his double vision, as it was distressing him and, as he couldn’t see the board at school very well, he was falling further behind in his literacy skills. If you are a parent, you can imagine how helpless I felt.

I brought my son to see Claire when he was nine. My son did the week-long intensive program four months ago, and we have been working on the homework since then. Using the Davis focusing techniques, my son was able to stop the double vision problem when he focused; this was in the first few days of the course. I was quite sceptical at the time, but I wanted to believe him. At home, doing the follow-up homework, I noticed that he would mix up ‘the’ and ‘a' when he was reading, so we clay modelled those words, he immediately read them correctly next time he read to me and hasn’t regressed. The Davis ideas and teaching techniques are very original and fun. So different to the phonics they are teaching at school.

Now, four months after the course, he tells me he never sees double anymore. He is becoming more willing to do his Davis homework, I think, because it is getting easier for him to do. His teacher comments on his very clear jump in ability – he is clearly thinking about what he is reading while he is reading, now, he has moved up a reading group and willingly does his reading comprehension tasks and does them well. She tells me his silly behaviour and mucking around during class time has also reduced.

Last week, his teacher did the PAT reading comprehension test with my son. At the beginning of the year, he was at Stanine 2 (in the lowest 11% of his age group), he is now testing at Stanine 6 (in the highest 40% of his age group).

It is a huge change in such a short time, I am so beyond thrilled and thankful and delighted. By doing the Davis course, I feel we have changed the trajectory of my son’s life. I am so enormously relieved that I was able to find something that actually helped my son.

If you are considering doing a Davis course, I cannot recommend it enough. It is really different to anything else that I have seen, but different in such a good way.”

Waikato Mum of a 9-year old