On the advice of his OT, my 14 year old son completed an auditory program at Cluas in 2024. Having undertaken many interventions over the year, relating to Daniels sensory processing disorder, with fairly limited success, I was reasonably sceptical about the potential change that the Cluas program would achieve. I assumed that any improvement in Daniels capacity to cope with auditory processing would be marginal and perhaps hard to quantify. I was absolutely delighted to be proven wrong! Daniel has undergone a profound change in how he experiences sound. It has moved from overwhelming and chaotic to ordered and enjoyable. In real terms this means that he has gone from: being anxious and tuned out in noisy family restaurants, to relaxed and chatty. From leaving the teenage disco’s early because he found it oppressively loud, to participating in nightly Céilí’s and discos at the Gaeltacht without any difficulty. From being disengaged and inattentive in class, to coming home talking about what the teacher said. To fights every night over homework, to sitting down to homework with a sense of purpose because he knows what happened in class today. I hadn’t fully grasped the extent to which Daniels auditory processing challenges were affecting his life and I am utterly grateful that he had the opportunity to attend Cluas. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Ronan and team have given him a gift that he will carry with him for his whole life.
Catherine, September 2024 – Wicklow
