Noah film transcript Nicola Hi I’m Nicola and I’m Noah’s mum. Noah is three years old, he has a rare chromosome disorder part of which has caused hearing loss and sight impairment. Myself and my husband Chris communicate with Noah using Makaton. Background Yeah it’s the fish Makaton is a form of sign language which links signing with speech so you sign and speak at the same time. We’ve learnt some basic signs which we use everyday with Noah and Noah has started picking up some of those signs. Woodside and Sense make a difference in our lives because once a week Noah comes to the centre. He can use the facilities here, in the summer holidays there is a play scheme that Noah can come along to and they put on extra activities. We can leave Noah here for the day and know that he is being taken really good care of, which gives me a break and my family. It’s been really great to meet other families in similar situations through the centre, and we’ve built up some really good friendships. Helen – Sense Support Worker A lot of the families feel very isolated when they first come to Woodside so it is a place where they can meet other families who are walking a similar walk to them. The family room is really what I would describe it as the heart of the centre actually because it is the place where the families sit together and they share a lot of the joys of having a child with special needs and also a lot of the heartache. Nicola Helen, our Sense support worker comes to our house every so often to work with Noah in our home environment. She’ll also work with Noah at the centre. Helen What I do with Noah is a lot of Sensory stimulation encouraging him to use his residual hearing. He does wear a hearing aid. Nicola The activities that Noah does with Helen is that he’ll come here and they provide music therapy. (Harp music in the background) Noah really loves music, he likes banging so he likes the drums, he likes the tambourine, he likes bells and shaking maracas and things, he just loves music. Karen – Music Therapist Background singing – “playing on the shiny…. - Yay” I’m Karen and I’m the music therapist at the Woodside Centre, and I’m working with Noah using instruments to help him use his hearing through vibrations with instruments. We quite often use a microphone so that he can hear his own voice echoed back and this encourages him and motivates him to use his voice. Bangs on the drum…”Oh hello Noah”. Helen Noah has progressed a lot over the last 18 months. Since his vision has started to become improved he is actually using his hands and beginning to explore really well, reaching for things. He is beginning to sort of understand the world and how it works, which is great. Nicola Chris and I want the best for Noah and we want to give him all the opportunities that we possibly can and one of those things is that we’d like him to continue coming to Woodside, continue using the facilities and the support that we have here