We've had the second reveiw now, and the improvement in his performance on the tests is quite dramatic. As predictied, after an initial dip in all-round performance, the dodgy 'vesibular' score has surged up close to normal levels while the others senses seem to be learning to work with this newly awakened team-mate.

All this is undeniable. I watch hawk-eyed as the Dore staff put my son through his paces, looking for signs that would account for the improvement; are they rejecting unfavourable results?; are they skewing the scores through the instructions they give? And, no - they aren't. Tests are performed fairly - and if anything there is less encouragement now to son to really concentrate on the tests - not more. Could it be that son is simply getting better at doing the tests (eg balance board) because he's done them before and knows what to expect? Possible, I suppose - but not very likely because he only does the tests a few times and then has a 6-week gap between.

So it seems undeniable to me that all the hard work is paying off in terms of physical response - and this is supported by my own observation as he does the test. His balance is dramatically better; he can whip through exercises that make me dizzy when I try them for a few seconds. He is getting more co-ordinated.

BUT what I haven't seen yet is any real spilling over of this physical improvement into behaviour. His concentration in class seems much the same - BAD. His new good handwriting is still reserved for concentrated bursts when working with an adult - not for normal school work. He still struggles with 'thoughts-to-paper' and getting his mind to pin-down a Maths question, stay on task, spell a simple word, organise himself.

But 4 months isn't long. (Is that all it's been? I've counted 3 times, unable to believe it!). I'm very glad that the tests vindicated our hard-work and showed big change. I'm glad he works so hard at the tests. It shows he CAN apply himself to tasks that are often tedious and uncomfortable for no immediate reward except praise and self respect. I expect this shouldn't be under-valued in itself.

Now you see it ...

now you don't.
I was just beginning to feel that we were making progress. There was a real and tangible improvement in son's concentration that had led to real and tangible improvement in handwriting.

And just when I thought this was the start of bigger things ... all signs of progress disappear. Yes, the handwriting thing can't be denied. But there's not much else to report. Playground situations still a bit iffy. Still very poor concentration when not working in one-to-one with adult.

The only other change I would note is hardly positive. His sleep patterns appear rather disrupted - generally sleeping for longer but occasionally having real problems getting to sleep.

I think I could really do with a break-through about nowish.

First review

On Tuesday, son and I dressed ourselves in our muddiest coloured clothes (not intentionally - how does that happen?) and set off for Bedford for our first programme review.

Two months into the programme and we've both been very good at remembering to do the exercises, even though there appears to be little to show for it. Yes, when son concentrates now on his handwriting practice, the quality of concentration that I get for ... ooh 5 minutes, is really something new. But this might all just a phase he's going through. If anything, things are slightly worse in the playground. He doesn't quite seem to fit in, doesn't quite pick up on the social clues, gets frustrated quickly when his 'rules' don't seem to be followed.

Anyway, another go at using the balance-board, more computer generated results and ... indeed things have got slightly worse! The scores which were in the 'normal' range have now come down a little - although the score in the 'very poor' range has come up a bit. I am assured that this is normal and that change is what is sought in the results at this stage - not necessarily improvement.

Apparently, the analogy is of three people working in an office - or at least, one sitting around all day, drinking coffee and doing nothing - the other two working furiously and effectively to compensate for this dead-weight. When the slacker begins to pull a bit of weight, it actually throws the others off their familiar routine and causes a bit of confusion. So if the office slacker is child's cerebellum, this early stimulation is only really confusing matters initally.

That's the analogy. If it's right, then improvement must surely be around the corner...

Anyway, we have a new set of exercises - and ones which take noticeably longer to complete and seem rather harder, so we're going to need to keep positive.

The novelty wears off

Over a month in and I'm beginning to feel a bit discouraged. I know it's too early to see any impact yet; indeed I was warned that my son's behaviour might even go backwards as the new stimulation upsets the status quo.

But I mean, how can a bit of jumping or arm waving or rolling a can about actually have any effect on anything?

The good news is that we're keeping it up; we've only missed one evening excercise because he fell asleep early on the sofa when I was busy elsewhere. For the most part I have been very impressed by how he has stuck with it unquestioningly and applied himself to the tasks. If anything, he is applying himself better now than he was at the start. Perhaps because he works best in an environment of routine and familiarity.

But in some ways it is sad to see how easy it is to get him to complete 10 minutes of, often, physically uncomfortable exercises - and how impossible it is to get him to do two minutes of 'simple' school-work - such as handwriting or spelling or arithmetic. He's a bright child with a loathing for anything he recognises to be 'learning'. Yet in doing these exercises so faithfully he clearly displays that he has all the capacity to focus and persist and oblige that ought to be required at school. So where does it all go wrong?

Well, we've done 2 weeks of exercises and so far son and I have been well behaved. Initially it was tricky to get him to take them seriously - expecially when the activities seemed very easy - and he just wanted to muck around. I am sometimes finding it hard to judge whether I should assess his completion of a task as 'easy' or 'hard' which is something you have to do each time and which influences which tasks you progress on to. By nature I am a bit of a stickler - so might be being a bit harsh sometimes.

Have I noted any changes at all? Well its very early days and I have been warned that it can take 3-6 months before and improvement is detected. But I've also been warned that the exercises can create a bit of confusion and disorientation initially. One evening, after we had done the exercises rather too close to bedtime, son got up out of his bed and came into the living-room rather confused and distressed. He said he felt confused, like his brain was in a mess.

But then, he had also watched a scary programme on TV and had a slight temperature - so there's probably nothing to read into this. For the most part, it's still hard to see how throwing a bean-bag onto a tea-towel only inches from your body can have a particulary dramatic effect - either positive or negative.

We begin the exercises

Well, we've now done two days of exercises - only another 363ish to go.

I had been pretty well primed what to expect and didn't find it all too weird. Well a bit. You can't help thinking - 'can it really help my son's concentration and handwriting to sit on a chair, clapping or shaking his head for a couple of minutes?' But the Dore people in (metaphorical) white coats have given me the talk and shown me the chart - and if it's going to work, it's going to take some positive thinking (I'm trying to avoid using the word 'faith' here).

And I have to put in a nice word about the doctor we saw (cynical voice inside asks, 'doctor' as in 'Doctor Gillian McKeith'?) who was friendly in a twinkly sort of way, informative and able to put things in terms that made sense both for me and my eight-year old.

I struggled to make sense of the instructions on the first day. The booklet could do with being re-written. It wasn't clear what was referred to by the words 'day' and 'exercise' - or maybe my own cerebellum is inadequate for the task which ought to be simple. But I phoned up and asked and it was clarified for me. So no real complaints.

The road begins

Well, we're off. My son is apparently a perfect contender for this programme. This was my ideal outcome, while I was sitting in the waiting room. Now, of course, I wonder if that's what they said to all the muddy-coloured-clothes-wearing Mums about their children? I wonder how many they actually turn down? How much money they actually give back?

I've seen lots of charts which seem to indicate quite clearly that my son is having to work very hard to sustain an adequate competence in a number of everyday activities. I wish I could have seen another child take the same tests - perhaps a high-flyer in his classroom - the golden boy who is ace on the football field and top of the class and popular with the other kids - and see how he performed in the same tests.

But, pushing doubts aside, I feel pretty positive. We trudged back from the station carrying our bag of Dore kit and caboodle: a large inflatable rubber ball, bean bags, charts and a wobble-board - full of hope and new resolutions.

They told me that my son would be tired after the day of tests. He enjoyed just about every minute and couldn't wait to tell his friends at school. I felt exhausted- too tired to switch on the tv or pick up a magazine.