Before Alfie joined SESMA, he was extremely clumsy and was constantly covered in bruises. This was also brought to my attention from his school teacher. In addition, he had a reflex called Amphibian Reflex (see attached recording from Smart Swim, Reepham).

I have a condition called Hip Dysplasia and given all of Alfie’s symptoms, we were very concerned that he had inherited this so he was referred to an orthopaedic clinic and had an X-Ray. Fortunately the consultant confirmed that his hips were in the correct position but having seen the amount of bruises on Alfie’s knees and seen the swimming video he asked if we could see the Neurologist clinic.

During the time whilst we were waiting for the Neurologist appointment, Alfie continued at SESMA and within a month of joining, he lost his odd swimming reflex. I took him on a play date to a swimming pool and he suddenly started swimming laps! Me and my friends just stood there in complete shock and disbelief as he took himself from one side of the pool to the other! Normally a child would swim a meter or so but Alfie must had swam 2-3 lengths of the pool! We also noticed a significance difference with his accidents. He still trips over but not to the disturbing level he used to. When we finally saw the Neurologist (6+ months later), Alfie’s coordination had improved so much that after the consultation he was discharged. I told the neurologist that I had kept him at SESMA and she said that it was likely that SESMA was what stopped the reflex (it’s a shame it isn’t worded like that in her letter). The consultant advised me to continue taking Alfie to SESMA. As you may be aware, Alfie struggles with his focus / attention. His teacher has reassured us and explained his attention levels are completely normal for his age (as he is one of the youngest of his year). Apparently, we can only expect 5 minutes plus his age (11 minutes) of solid focus time.  You can probably tell that I can find it equally as frustrating to keep him engaged and listening to the class but despite this, I can see everything improving and know that taking him to SESMA is the best thing I can do for him.