Jake Perrin

Jake's story

Vital stats

Age on completion – 11
Problem areas – speech, concentration and attention
Completed Dore – October 2009

“I’m no good at riding my bike. I’m rubbish.”

Jake, aged 9

Background

From a very early age, Jake Perrin had difficulties with his speech. His mum, Sue, noticed that he couldn’t form words or sentences in a normal, developmental way and he seemed to have a physical problem with pronunciation of sounds; talking just didn’t come naturally to him at all.

At 3, he started speech therapy classes, and while there were some improvements, it also became apparent that he was finding it hard to concentrate both at home and at school. He had poor handwriting skills - and writing, copying from the board and spelling took him ages. “It was as though he couldn’t co-ordinate more than one thing at a time,” says Sue. 

Jake was also displaying some balance and co-ordination problems. He could ride his bike in a straight line, but as soon as he turned the handlebars, he fell off! Ball games were hard for him too and because of this, he started to shy away from them, becoming a little bit isolated from the other children.

Academically, Jake continued to be a year or eighteen months behind his key stage levels. If he hadn’t had one to one support, he simply wouldn’t have been able to keep up at all.

Jake’s journey

When Sue came across the advert for Dore and completed the online test, she was really excited. “It mentioned all his symptoms,” she says, “the lack of concentration, the balance - and the difficulties with learning. I couldn’t wait to take him to the assessment.”

He was put through a series of tests and these confirmed that Jake had dyspraxic tendencies. In April 2008, Jake started his tailored programme of physical exercises twice a day, every day.

By summer, Jake was keen to go out on his bike – and when Sue saw him riding, she couldn’t believe her eyes! Jake was going round and round in circles, turning the bike this way and that, and not falling off! His ball skills also noticeably improved and this helped his confidence; he was keener to join in because it was no longer hard for him to play.

At the same time, his writing, mental arithmetic and spelling all improved – he started to get faster, as though things were coming more naturally.

The future

A year after embarking on the Dore programme, Jake was discharged from speech therapy classes, and by the end of year 6, he sat his SATs completely independently achieving all bar one of his key stage 2 levels. He is now at secondary school and still has ongoing support but Sue believes that Dore has improved his concentration, balance and gross motor skills.

“He still goes off on a tangent from time to time but he’s a growing boy so I can’t really expect anything else!” she says. “But for the first time in his school life, he’s working at the right level for his age, so we’re delighted. The fact that he can now play football with his friends and ride his bike means that he’s also much more sociable and outgoing – he’s really enjoying life!”

“It was like he’d been riding that bike for ever!”

Jake’s mum, Sue