Orla Craigie (13) from Meath was diagnosed with a brain tumour when she was nine months old. It was successfully removed but the illness meant that she had to lie down a lot and didn't crawl as soon as other babies.
"But she passed all her development milestones and had no serious issues," says her mother, Marie.
However, Marie gradually noticed that Orla had trouble sleeping at night, lacked confidence and had a nervous disposition. She was doing well at school but needed help with maths. It was during a talk by a resource teacher that Marie first heard about neuro developmental therapy.
She contacted neuro developmental therapist and paediatric nurse Moya Mulroy who lived locally.
Orla, then 10, began her exercise sessions. A yoga-type exercise known as the flower was a key part of the programme and this was done every day.
She also did a type of crawling as well as swimming and trampolining.
"The first thing I noticed was that my quiet child had become very opinionated, all in the space of three weeks. Within 10 or 12 weeks, Orla had finished with her remedial teacher. Her teacher does continuous assessment with the children and felt she did not need the extra help any longer."
She also noticed that Orla could walk in a straight line, heel to toe, something she could never do before because of poor balance.
"She's doing better now than we ever thought possible," she says.
"Now she's doing honours maths and honours English. She's playing football for the Meath under 14s and she is a great outdoors person. It has certainly turned her life around, but in a very subtle way.
"With Orla, her problems were very minor but children with something like attention deficit disorder would need a lot more time to get the same results."
