Peter has speech and language difficulties. He can say one word sentences like “hungee” when he wants food, “up” when he wants to be picked up and” bye” when he is going somewhere or is finished an activity. He is now nearly 3½ years old and is still speaking in one-word sentences. He has been attending Speech and Language therapy but has made little progress.

We know from our developmental assessment that Peter has developmental delay and has had many ear infections. Developmental delay can occur when the neural pathways in the brain are not linked together or are not fully developed; this delay is contributing to Peter’s Language delay.

Peter’s ear infections may have caused him difficulties so that at a crucial period of acquiring language he was not able to hear important frequencies which are necessary for language. In addition, the infections may have weakened the muscles in Peter’s middle ear and now they are not as flexible as they need to be. The result of this is that Peter does not hear the sounds of language the way his peers do, and thus he has a poor example from which to model his own speech and language.

At Cluas we create and provide programmes to help develop the Vestibular, Auditory and Language neural pathways to and from the brain. We use specially recorded music pre-processed with a sophisticated audio computer and then listened to on Specialised Head Phones. The music Peter listened to as part of his programme was gated and filtered in such a way that it gave his ear muscles a work out, encouraging them to contract and relax repeatedly, making them strong and supple.

Peter started a Cluas Programme and within a short space of time he had acquired more single words, and then began adding two words together – “bye bye ballpool” and “bye bye horsey” to a rocking horse. Later still, he began using verbs and longer sentences – “I’m tired” “I want up” which developed further into “I want to go to bed”, “I’m tired. Will you carry me?”.

Peter is now four and has made great progress in a short space of time. He is now a better listener, a lot calmer and does not get as frustrated as he had previously. He will follow simple instructions and can stay at a task longer. Peter’s parents are delighted with the progress he has made so far and are aware that there is more work to be done, however they are now a lot more optimistic that Peter will survive in big school when he is five. He is still receiving Speech and Language Therapy, and is now progressing at a much faster rate compared to before the Cluas Programme. His parents are delighted and are also aware that Peter will benefit from follow-up therapy.