Help Daniel
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Honley Ladies Choir are supporting and helping.
Daniel, on the face of it, is just like any other typical 12-year-old. Mad about Xbox and fast cars. He is loving, caring and funny, and I mean funny, seriously he could do stand up!
But Daniel is struggling, he’s struggling with life, school and the big world out there. When Daniel was a baby he lived through neglect and many other things that no child should ever have to witness or experience. This left Daniel with early-life trauma and attachment disorder, which has impacted his life ever since.
He came to me through adoption at 22 months old and he was in a self-sufficient bubble. It was so sad to watch him trying to navigate his way in the world. He doesn’t feel pain, so to see him fall and hurt himself and not react, or cry is heartbreaking. To this day, he still doesn’t cry. He lives in constant “Fight, Flight or Freeze” mode.
Daniel struggled in his first Primary school as they did not understand trauma in children and it was really hard to try and get them to think in a different way. When Daniel was 7, his world crashed again. He became very unwell with an ear infection, which was very scary, the doctors told me if had left it any longer it could have developed into meningitis on the brain. Daniel had to undergo two emergency operations.
He did not cope well and there were times he had to be held down for cannulas to be inserted, or even worse, a long line. This was so traumatic for both him and me and we were in hospital for 2 weeks. The infection left Daniel deaf in his left ear and he has had to have a further 8 operations, so far. After that, combined with all the time he had to have off school,things began to go wrong for him again. His positive relationship with school broke down and we had to find a new school who would better understand him and his needs. Luckily, we did and in September of that year he moved.
This second school were amazing with him and totally understood him. He had a great time here. School immediately implemented a one to one support assistant for him and started to think outside of the box for better ways to help him to cope. They also got him the professional help he needed and succeeded in getting him an EHCP (Educational Health Care Plan).
We worked really hard with the local high school so that Daniel could move with his peers at 11 but, unfortunately,Daniel just couldn’t cope with high school, the amount of people, size of the school the changing of lessons every hour. He became so anxious and fight, flight and freeze really kicked back in.
He has now been out of school a year. We have worked with EHCP to try and find a new educational setting that could meet Daniel’s needs but there isn’t one in Kirklees so, instead,we are now trying to set up some kind of schooling from home.
In the beginning period of this time, Daniel became very closed off and low, he so desperately wanted to be at school but couldn’t. It was a very worrying time.
Then COVID-19 happened and it brought a double edged sword. Everyone was now in the same position that he was,stuck at home, not able to go to school. Some of his friendsfrom Junior School kept in touch at this point and this really calmed him. But it didn’t last.
The other side is that Daniel has retreated from the world, he is becoming more and more reclusive, his friends are no longer around, and he doesn’t go out of the house unless it is with his educational activity.
This is where I need help. Over the past couple of years, I have tried to find therapies and other things that would help Daniel to be able to access the world. Even when he would go out of the house, he would struggle unless it was a place we had visited many times. New places panic him and it can be exhausting trying to calm him and talk him down.
I have thought a dog would help Daniel and I have read many articles which discussed therapy dogs for children with trauma and PTSD. We believe this is an avenue that would benefitDaniel enormously - not only with accessing the outside world but also as a companion, while he learns to build new friendships.
Unfortunately a trained assistance therapy dog costs a lot of money. £6000 is much more than I can find, so I’m please asking if you could find it in your hearts to help and donate an amount towards the cost.
Daniel, on the face of it, is just like any other typical 12-year-old. Mad about Xbox and fast cars. He is loving, caring and funny, and I mean funny, seriously he could do stand up!
But Daniel is struggling, he’s struggling with life, school and the big world out there. When Daniel was a baby he lived through neglect and many other things that no child should ever have to witness or experience. This left Daniel with early-life trauma and attachment disorder, which has impacted his life ever since.
He came to me through adoption at 22 months old and he was in a self-sufficient bubble. It was so sad to watch him trying to navigate his way in the world. He doesn’t feel pain, so to see him fall and hurt himself and not react, or cry is heartbreaking. To this day, he still doesn’t cry. He lives in constant “Fight, Flight or Freeze” mode.
Daniel struggled in his first Primary school as they did not understand trauma in children and it was really hard to try and get them to think in a different way. When Daniel was 7, his world crashed again. He became very unwell with an ear infection, which was very scary, the doctors told me if had left it any longer it could have developed into meningitis on the brain. Daniel had to undergo two emergency operations.
He did not cope well and there were times he had to be held down for cannulas to be inserted, or even worse, a long line. This was so traumatic for both him and me and we were in hospital for 2 weeks. The infection left Daniel deaf in his left ear and he has had to have a further 8 operations, so far. After that, combined with all the time he had to have off school,things began to go wrong for him again. His positive relationship with school broke down and we had to find a new school who would better understand him and his needs. Luckily, we did and in September of that year he moved.
This second school were amazing with him and totally understood him. He had a great time here. School immediately implemented a one to one support assistant for him and started to think outside of the box for better ways to help him to cope. They also got him the professional help he needed and succeeded in getting him an EHCP (Educational Health Care Plan).
We worked really hard with the local high school so that Daniel could move with his peers at 11 but, unfortunately,Daniel just couldn’t cope with high school, the amount of people, size of the school the changing of lessons every hour. He became so anxious and fight, flight and freeze really kicked back in.
He has now been out of school a year. We have worked with EHCP to try and find a new educational setting that could meet Daniel’s needs but there isn’t one in Kirklees so, instead,we are now trying to set up some kind of schooling from home.
In the beginning period of this time, Daniel became very closed off and low, he so desperately wanted to be at school but couldn’t. It was a very worrying time.
Then COVID-19 happened and it brought a double edged sword. Everyone was now in the same position that he was,stuck at home, not able to go to school. Some of his friendsfrom Junior School kept in touch at this point and this really calmed him. But it didn’t last.
The other side is that Daniel has retreated from the world, he is becoming more and more reclusive, his friends are no longer around, and he doesn’t go out of the house unless it is with his educational activity.
This is where I need help. Over the past couple of years, I have tried to find therapies and other things that would help Daniel to be able to access the world. Even when he would go out of the house, he would struggle unless it was a place we had visited many times. New places panic him and it can be exhausting trying to calm him and talk him down.
I have thought a dog would help Daniel and I have read many articles which discussed therapy dogs for children with trauma and PTSD. We believe this is an avenue that would benefitDaniel enormously - not only with accessing the outside world but also as a companion, while he learns to build new friendships.
Unfortunately a trained assistance therapy dog costs a lot of money. £6000 is much more than I can find, so I’m please asking if you could find it in your hearts to help and donate an amount towards the cost.
Organizer
Carole Kain
Organizer