A REAL STORY OF A REAL LEAP

15 year old Tam*, a determined girl with a beautiful smile is in year 9 and lives with a Global Development Delay. Being non-verbal with complex health and developmental needs, leads to many challenges. Tam uses a wheelchair for excursions as walking long distances fatigues her and she is unsteady on her feet. I was approached recently by Tam’s school teachers’ with their concerns that she wasn’t able to get safely on the bus. It wasn’t nice to hear she would drop to the ground and hit her face when she approached the bus. Travelling on the bus is important for Tam as this is her transport to swimming which she loves.
Recently, these challenges escalated and she needed to be lifted up off the ground and onto the bus – this wasn’t safe for her or her support workers.

Tam’s way of communicating about how she was feeling was dropping to the ground and hitting her face when she didn’t want to do it.
Tam, her Mum, teachers and support workers explored what the issue was. It was revealed that she was afraid of the BIG STEP onto the bus.
Tam loved to dance on the stage in the gym and could climb up steps if they looked solid, sturdy and didn’t have a big gap.

So, we started singing to Tam in the gym so she could enjoyably dance on the stage & practise going up and down the stairs. We had support from Tam’s Mum, teachers, and support workers.’
Following the gym step & several practise sessions on the step in the bus, Tam stepped on successfully. The next day she got on with only my light support, encouragement and of course a BIG smile. She still appreciates my singing too! Her new achievement has taken her to excursions to the beach and other activities with great success. Everybody is dancing now ? ??

*Note: Not the client’s real name