Malachys Diary page 3

Next came the potty training. We were told by doctors at the time not to even try potty training Mal, as he would always be in nappies. We did not take his advise I’m glad to say and he was toilet trained before his fifth birthday.

Mal started school when he was five years old. He attended the local school for children with special needs. Mal had no speech so was unable to communicate his needs and became frustrated. The teachers were unable to understand him and he later became quite hyper, running all over the place. The teachers asked me to go to our doctor for medication to calm him down. I was not happy about this as I was worried about the long term effects on him as he was only a little boy. In those days medication was the only answer for everything. The medication did not make any difference, thinking back it made things much worse.

When Mal was coming up to 10 years old the school doctor was making a visit. She asked for me to come in to see her. When she examined Mal she said he was deaf and should have been wearing hearing aids. She said the school was not meeting his needs. She knew of a centre that would be more suitable for Mal and wrote a letter for an appointment for us to go along. You could not imagine our delight. At long last someone finally understood our little boy’s needs and was prepared to do something to help him.