Page 4 - Success Stories

How it all began….

Susan Steele established Learning Breakthrough in Newtownabbey, N. Ireland in 2010.
Reason being, her own two sons had struggled in school. One Son, who was kind,
funny and great with young children, struggled with low concentration, difficulty
sitting down to do homework, he forgot books, couldn’t get to sleep, was a fussy eater
and had trouble understanding consequences. – He was shouted at a lot!

The other Son, who was very mature for his age, played very fairly and was never in
bother in school was a very slow, hesitant reader who yawned and rubbed his eyes as
soon as he lifted a book. He couldn’t retain spellings and had great difficulty writing a
story that made any sense. He had great ideas for a story but couldn’t prove it on
paper.

She didn’t realise that there was a specific problem until the children were 12 and 10
years old.

“In-fact, I felt that I was a bad parent; thinking I must be working too much, I’m not

dealing with these situations properly, I shout too much, I don’t shout enough, etc!!!”.

“I was called to the school with the eldest boy and told that the teachers were getting
increasingly concerned and if he didn’t pull his socks up within 2 weeks he would lose
his place in the top class. As for the youngest, when tested by an Educational
Psychologist his reading and comprehension age was 2 years 6 months behind and
his spelling age was 3 years 6 months behind his chronological age.”

At this point Susan knew she had to do something. She searched the internet and
found a balance and movement exercise programme that described the symptoms
that both boys were displaying.

“It simply made sense. It wasn’t medication or injections so we felt it was worth a
try”. Especially when Susan’s eldest asked her, “Does this mean that I don’t have to
feel like this for the rest of my life?”.

The boys were enrolled on the balance and co-ordination exercise programme. They
did the exercises every day for 12 months.

Within weeks the eldest felt happier, teachers noticed that he was much more focused
and by 6 weeks he was coming in from school and just going and doing his
homework. He was more organised and could get to sleep much quicker. Most

importantly, for his self-esteem, he stopped getting shouted at at home and at
school. He is now a very well ‘balanced’ happy adult who is a fully qualified chef and
has plans to own his own restaurant in the future.