Arthur experienced hypoxia at birth which meant that his brain was starved of oxygen for a period of time, leading to a brain injury and a diagnosis of cerebral palsy, dystonia and sight and hearing impairments. Arthur was on a ventilator in the NICU and doctors believed that, due to the extensive brain injury, he would not survive coming off. As time went on Arthur began to show little signs of strength and eventually he was breathing over the ventilator.

It is really hard when the vision you had of your child growing up and developing changes to a vision of uncertainty. We went from being told that he wasn’t going to survive, to maybe he will for a few minutes or hours, to looking like Arthur is going to be with us for a much longer time!

As a parent you adapt to be the person your child needs. Now I could see my child actively fighting to be in this world and I wanted nothing more than to fight with him.

I would do tones of research to see how best I can support his development and read that early intervention is so important for children with neurological disorders.

Arthur’s consultant told us about Playskill so I reached out and we were so lucky to be offered a place after assessment. Arthur is now two years old and has been coming to Playskill since shortly after he turned one. It was amazing to have a place to come once a week where I knew staff were so interested in his development, setting goals that we could practice at home.

Over time we could see Arthur subtly learning and progressing, and engaging so well in his own individual way. Staff at Playskill really listened to me and noticed what Arthur needed & his own ways of communicating. Jodi worked out that Arthur’s little pouting lip movement was his way of asking for more. This was an amazing way of keeping the continuity by telling the other professionals involved in his care.

Arthur also has NHS therapies (physio/OT/SLT) but due to the stretch of services we don’t get to see them as often as we would have liked. Having Playskill keeps momentum and provides a safe happy space we can go to.

We’ve met so many other wonderful Playskill families that we feel like we have a friendship group. That can be hard to have otherwise, and the opportunity to leave the children in the safe hands of the Playskill staff to have a nice cup of tea and a chat with other parents is so valued.

I couldn’t recommend Playskill enough. Arthur had come on leaps and bounds because of the support and love they’ve shown him, and their hard work and encouragement. It’s a joy to come every Monday morning term time!

Christina - Arthur's mum