Its February 2003 and Liam is now two and a half and just starting pre-school with his cousin. She talks for him and answers for him, its something she's become accustomed to, I found out when Liam was 20 months old that he had fluid build up in both ears and couldn't hear, which in turn meant he couldn't speak. He had grommets, a small plastic tube, inserted into both ears just before his second birthday and now 6months on and starting pre-school I've found out the grommets have failed and he cannot hear again. So his3 year old cousin is now his interpreter.

He loves pre-school, he's full of confidence and making friends despite his lack of communication. He has a key-worker with him assessing his progress and Liam loves her.

It was at the parent/teacher meeting three months after Liam started pre-school that I was told they think there's more to his problems than just hearing, He is obsessed with routine, which I knew but thought he was just fussy, he fidgets and rocks and is unable to concentrate on anything for more than a minute, after this he will move away from the group and refuse to rejoin. His demands are constant and they want to get a psychologist in to assess his behavior. I was distraught, Its never a nice feeling thinking your child is a problem to others.

Things moved quite quickly from here, he was sent to a pediatrician and the special needs teacher from the First school came in to work with him, he was given occupational therapy and speech therapy. Yet nobody could tell me what was wrong, all they could do was continue with the help he was receiving.
 
By the time he left pre-school he was on his second lot of grommets and getting speech therapy, the pediatrician had discharged him and there were not enough occupational therapists to continue with the treatment, though they offered him plenty of therapy sessions as soon as they had the manpower.

The summer was amazing that year, my sister and I decided to take the kids, four of them in total, to France for six weeks, our Dad lives there,in a place called Angouleme, The journey there was interesting to say the least, thanks to four very overexcited and very overtired kids we managed to miss our stop and ended up in Belgium, In Belgium we were frogmarched by security to a waiting train and sent back to France. After missing our adjoining train and having a four hour stop in Lille we managed to arrive at our destination. It was gorgeous, We stayed on a caravan site that had a footpath leading to an artificial sandy beach with its own restaurant overlooking the reservoir. on the left of the reservoir there was a yaught club where you could hire windsurfing boards and paddles and across the reservoir there was another beach you could paddle to with another restaurant. We spent the days sunbathing and the kids loved the swimming, camping and walking. They held a festival every year in a nearby town called Confelon, Musicians from all over the world came and played their music in different parts of the town, every street was like being in a different country. We stopped for lunch under a gazebo where some Spanish musicians were playing on a huge stage and without any warning the heavens opened and the wind blow strong. My dad ran to find the car leaving my sister and I and the four kids sheltering when suddenly the gazebo uprooted and blew away. Before we knew what was happening the Spanish musicians jumped off the stage grabbed the kids and ran off leaving my sister and I to gather the pushchairs and bags, moments later two other Spanish men began ushering us in the same direction the kids had gone. We were led down a hill and round into a building where some french woman was performing to a large crowd, we were taken out to the back of the hall and there we found our kids wearing over sized festival t-shirts and Spanish jackets and hats dancing having a fantastic time. But oddly my sister and I never panicked. Things were so different over there, everyone looked after each other.

Two days after this we went to a horse show that my dads girlfriend was taking part in. We were stood at the edge of the field and watched show horses entertaining the crowd after this was a horse and cart ride, I turned to my sister and suggested we took the kids on it, but as we started gathering the kids up we realized Liam and his cousin Susie weren't with us, neither was my dad so we went to where he was and there was Susie, but no Liam. Dad said he was there a moment ago and couldn't be far. we looked around the ice cream van and in the drinks tent but there was no sign. Then my dads girlfriend rode up and asked if we'd lost someone and pointed to the horse and cart, and sitting on a old ladies lap at the back of the cart waving frantically at us with a huge smile was Liam. She brought him back to us after and said he just got on the cart and put his arms up to her so she sat with him. cheeky little devil xx

The holiday ended too quickly and soon we were on the train back, this time Lille was the last stop and everybody would be leaving the train, so no chance for error on the way home. A few stops in the train stopped and an announcement came over the tannoy in french, but it wasn't Lille so we weren't moving even though everyone seemed to be getting off, a lady saw us still sitting there and jumped back on the train, she said that the announcement was there was a bomb on the train and we've been 'invited' to get off. We did! We were all taken to a train on the next platform and had to sit in the aisles with the kids spread all the way down in spare seats and our luggage all over the place and we had no idea which stop Lille was, would it still be the last one? nobody spoke English and we hardly spoke french, The train moved away and twenty minutes later we had a tap on the shoulder by a lady shouting Lille at us. Great but with kids and luggage spread all over the carriage we were never going to get off in time!! A few people noticed our plight and jumped into action throwing kids and luggage at us while a couple stood in the doorway preventing it from shutting. They were so amazing. We found our train to Waterloo and soon we were back in cold rainy Bucks all really tired and all really tanned.

He started at the first school and most of the children in his class were with him at pre-school so he settled very quickly, the speech therapy was beginning to work and he was saying a few recognizable words. It was a few weeks into his reception year that his teacher became sick and had to leave for a while. She was replaced with four substitute teachers which really didn't sit well with Liam and he developed obsessive compulsive disorder. The occupational therapy department gave him a couple of sessions to try and understand his problems and decided that he had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder because his attention span was less than three minutes. I could understand part of this but he wasn't particularly hyperactive and they agreed. so the diagnosis was retracted. Occupational offered him group sessions and said they would let me know when they would happen because once again they were short.

He finished reception year as he started still lacking in speech, still with OCD and still waiting for occupational therapy. I spoke to the headmistress and explained that Liam could really benefit from having the special needs teacher involved, having one teacher and seeing the educational psychologist. She agreed and said she would arrange everything and also would apply to get him a statement to get him more help in the classroom. I was thrilled, until a week later I received a letter from the school letting me know Liam was having two teachers in Year One. She wouldn't move him to the other class being taken by the schools special needs teacher. It didn't make sense.

Liam is now in year one, settled, the Obsessive compulsive disorder has calmed down, the special needs teacher is involved and they appear to be gathering information on Liam for his statement application. The Education Psychologist has seen him and agrees he would benefit from a statement and the pediatrician is now involved again. The speech therapy is continuing and he is now talking a lot better, he still can't complete a sentence but its easier now to pick out words and understand what he's trying to say.

I'll never forget talking to one of the mums in the playground one morning, she asked me how Liam was getting on. I said he's doing OK but I worry that as the children get older they'll become aware that Liams speech isn't very good. She called her daughter over and asks her if she plays with Liam and did she understand him. Her response is one I will never forget. She said 'Liam is lovely, he's really sweet, but of course I don't understand him mum, I think he's from Spain'

Liam is given a session at occupational therapy which helps us find ways to keep him calm when he gets fidgety, the pediatrician won't diagnose him because she doesn't want to 'label' him, though the occupational therapist suspects he has Sensory Processing Disorder, this is the inability to process information received through the senses. It happens when the central nervous system in the brain misreads or loses the information your senses give you.   

He gets through year one and he's come home with a letter which says he has one teacher in year two, the application has been sent off a few weeks prior to the summer holidays, so everything is going well. Until a week into the summer holidays. I receive a letter saying that through lack of information and evidence Liam will not be given a statement, the occupational therapist and speech therapist have both written letters to say that now Liam is approaching year two he is no longer eligible for therapies without a statement though he will be given one occupational therapy session because he'd been promised it while he was still in year one. Everyone has let him down and I still don't officially know what is wrong with him. But the headmistress had promised me that if he didn't get this statement she would reapply until he got it. So I was hopeful.

It was yet another interesting summer holiday, I was pregnant with twins and we took the kids and my expanding bump to Haven in Devon, Liam performed an Irish Jig on stage in a talent show with his cousins and won! He danced and partied and made loads of new friends, He saw a pantomime and splashed around the paddling pool, We took trips to museums and to the beach and had two weeks of pure fun.

In the last week of the holidays I went to the hospital for a checkup. The twins weren't due for another five weeks but I'd had a scan the week before and one of the twins had pressure on the cord so the doctors wanted to check they were ok. The pressure was fine but one was lying in less fluid so they decided to get them out. They booked me in the next day and on 25th August 2005 Liam had a brother and sister. He came to see us all in hospital and absolutely loved them. He drew them pictures which the nurses attached to their incubators and introduced himself. It was so lovely.

Liam started in year two he's had his third lot of grommets. I make an appointment to see the headmistress to talk about re-applying for the statement.

After two weeks of being in year two I notice that Liam is becoming very quiet, the confidence is slipping and he doesn't talk about what he's been up to in school.

I went to see the headmistress, she told me that Liam is approaching seven, he'll never catch up now so they wouldn't do anything else now and see what happens at the Junior school. I was mortified.

By the time he left the school he was a walking shell, No diagnosis, no help, and no confidence. A seven year old boy dumped by the system.....