Parent Story: Preparing for High School - Stephen (10 Years)

The Challenge

Lisa Cook knew her 10-year-old son Stephen needed help. As a former primary school teacher herself, she could see he was struggling in ways that traditional school support wasn't addressing. Throughout Year 4, the family navigated the frustrating maze of the standard system, filling in endless questionnaires for paediatricians, attending speech and language therapy sessions, and waiting months for results.

After all that effort and waiting, the response was disappointing: "Yes, he's bad but he's not bad enough for us to do anything."

"There were problems getting him into school, and then falling behind in school," Lisa explains. As Stephen moved into Year 5 with high school looming on the horizon, the family felt an urgency to find the right support. They'd exhausted the school route and were at a loss about where to turn next.

Finding Learning DNA

Through a family friend, Lisa discovered there might be another way. She was sceptical but determined, her expectation simple: "Something is going to be better than nothing."

Living about two hours from Birmingham, Lisa initially wondered if they'd need to travel for in-person assessments. When she learned everything could be done online, she had a slight hesitation, could online therapy really be effective? However, the team at Learning DNA quickly put her mind at ease, explaining how they successfully supported children internationally and how the technology actually enhanced the delivery of therapies like movement therapy.

The 360 Assessment Difference

Despite being a trained teacher, Lisa had never heard of retained primitive reflexes or movement therapy. The 360 assessment opened up a completely new understanding of what was happening with Stephen.

"After his initial assessment and talking about the retained primitive reflexes, I pretty much had everybody in my family laying on the floor doing the things that they'd done with Amanda in the assessment. I was like, 'I can't believe this, I've never heard of these things,'" Lisa shares, her enthusiasm evident.

What made the assessment even more valuable was the expert consultation that followed. During the feedback discussion, Lizzie drew on her extensive experience to recommend additional steps beyond the initial report. She suggested Stephen see a behavioural optometrist as well as beginning movement therapy, explaining that addressing these root causes first might eliminate the need for an expensive ADHD assessment.

"It was her that because of the experience that she's had with children, she was able to add in more expertise," Lisa explains. "She said, 'Do the 12 weeks of the movement, do the behavioural optometrist, and it might be that you don't actually need to get an ADHD assessment and pay out for that.'"

The Transformation Journey

The movement therapy with Amanda has "worked brilliantly online." The technology tracks Stephen's movements through the camera, providing measurable progress that keeps him engaged. The behavioural optometrist revealed that Stephen needed to develop better body control before vision therapy could be effective, describing his constant fidgeting as like "trying to read on a train," his body and brain constantly compensating.

Lisa has seen massive improvement already, enough that the family committed to extending the movement therapy for another 12 weeks. The detailed reports from Learning DNA have been invaluable, not just for the family but for the school as well. As a school governor, Lisa has been able to share the assessment findings and recommendations with Stephen's teachers, and his teaching assistant now implements some of the recommended exercises during their twice-weekly sessions.

Worth Every Penny

Lisa is frank about the financial reality. As parents to four children, they could only afford the therapy with help from her parents. "It is expensive," she acknowledges, but adds without hesitation: "It has more than paid for itself, in value for what it's done."

What gave Lisa and her husband the confidence to invest in therapies from Learning DNA was the personal touch in the service. "Lizzie was amazing on the phone call that we had about everything. She told us lots of different case studies of children and things where it had helped," Lisa recalls. "That personal touch of having the follow-up conversation about what to move into with the therapies, she spent a long time talking with us. It was really good."

Whilst being frank about the financial realities of parenting four children and funding additional support, Lisa acknowledges the value of the investment the family made: "It has more than paid for itself, in value for what it's done."

Becoming an Advocate

"I've been into school, I've been talking about it. Anybody that will listen to me for more than five minutes, I've pretty much told them, and how good it is," she says.

The comprehensive reports have been invaluable for working with the school. "It was all nicely just all laid out so I was able to go in with that," Lisa explains. "His class teacher was able to implement some of those things that they talked about."

Lisa's Advice to Other Parents

"If you've got to the end of what you can do in school and you're thinking 'where do we go from here?', Learning DNA offers something completely different," Lisa emphasises. "I knew nothing about movement therapy or retained primitive reflexes, I'd never heard of these things, even as a trained teacher. But the results speak for themselves."

For families worried about the online format: "I had a slight hesitation because you think, 'Can it work online?' But it's worked brilliantly. The movement therapy is tracked via camera, the technology enhances it. And they found us a behavioural optometrist locally for the things that needed to be in person."

For Lisa and Stephen, Learning DNA provided what years of traditional assessments couldn't: a comprehensive understanding of Stephen's challenges, expert guidance on the sequence of interventions, and targeted therapies that are delivering real results. Most importantly, they've moved from being told Stephen was "not bad enough" to having a pathway forward and more hope for the future.