Parent Testimonials

Tina

In March 2007 my daughter was diagnosed with slight autism and extreme anxiety including separation. Due to this she would scream and cry whenever entering any establishment or houses of family or friends and displayed the same behaviour when anybody entered our home.

I noticed her ability to express herself was delayed, attention span short, had only a vocabulary of three words, feared toys that made a noise, loud power tools and noisy environments. Unable to put herself to sleep from birth, I nursed her for two years solid, everyday, as controlled crying had failed.

Being a single mother and desperately distressed I was referred to the LEAP Centre for two hours per week, where specialist staff focused intensely on building social and emotional skills, self-care, communication, fine and gross motor development and cognitive and sensory skills. They persisted with her until her trust was gained.

My daughter, now four years, is a very talkative, extremely social child; happy in play groups and can be taken on outings where noise levels are high. My daughter attends child care three days per week, loves shopping and meeting people and will go places without me, giving me the respite I so desperately needed.

I found the LEAP Centre to be the light at the end of my tunnel.

I am now a lady with a life, instead of being imprisoned in my own home. LEAP not only taught my daughter, they also taught me how to cope with the pressure I was under and how to better my situation.

Still attending the LEAP Centre, my daughter is a happy child, chatting constantly with a much improved vocabulary at a level which will see her attend mainstream school. Many thanks to the LEAP Centre.

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Nicky

Hello to all, my name is Nicky Isaac, I am a mother first and foremost of 2 beautiful children Ben aged 9 and Zoe aged 7. I never new motherhood would be such a challenging and at the same time rewarding experience.

At the age of 4 my Beautiful boy was diagnosed with Autism spectrum disorder which changed our lives in many ways. At first I fell apart and asked all the normal parent questions like why? is he going to get better?. I fought with myself thinking I want my children’s lives to exceed everything mine was! How can I make this happen now!, a period of denial, not wanting to tell people just in case they miss judged him and that he was Ben!! Not the kid with Autism. It was a maze of emotions, fears and desires for him.

During this time and before diagnosis I was lucky to be attending The LEAP Centre; if it was not for them I would not have my network of what I call “Special People”.

Here I found a world of parents/families with children that were going through the same things as me and I could chat and not have people making judgment on me or my child’s behavior. I would look forward to going every week, just so I could let go and talk/tell it as it is (some days harder than others) with people that understood.

Of course when I first arrived at LEAP I thought is this really the place I need for Ben? And I had to admit to myself that he had worries that I needed help with. (Sometimes reaching out for help can be the hardest thing).

I found the staff very open and understanding of my situation, words cannot describe how I feel about them and the impact they have had on our lives. Some days I needed a shoulder, other days I was excited about progress we had made, it wasn’t just about Ben but our family.

The LEAP Centre taught me how to communicate better with Ben and gave me strategies to take home to help the daily upsets that were experiencing. I was also lucky to have Robyn come to meetings prior to Ben starting school to be supportive of me and help school have a better understanding of Ben.
I have learnt many skills attending LEAP. The support we have received for Ben and myself have helped us become what we are today, a happy mum with much more understanding of these special people and a Beautiful boy who copes well in our world and is passionate about technology.