Tinsley House vs INPP Chester?

[Fogie]

We are in the early stages of working out how to help 10yr old ds at school.

Just before Christmas (literally!), school told us that he was going to be assessed by their specialist teacher because his class teacher felt he had processing issues and because his handwriting is so poor it will not get him through the 11+ next year.

An OT assessment a few years ago, identified that ds had a retained reflex (can't remember which one, would have to dig out the report) so I have been doing loads of googling around RRT, Behavioural Optometrists, etc.

I have an appointment in Chester in a few weeks but have now been reading about Tinsley House (which would be much more convenient in terms of travelling!) and wonder whether anyone has any thoughts on whether one
approach would be better than the other?

Anyone know what the Tinsley House costs are?

Assessment at school is still ongoing but, so far,they have identified that his reading and spelling are 3yrs above chronological age but his written work is significantly below that. He has poor working memory, is disorganised, poor self esteem and confidence in his abilities, handwriting slow and illegible. His fine motor skills generally are poor - cutting with scissors, tying laces, drawing. It wouldn't surprise me if he has some visual issues -3d shapes, telling time using a clock face are both tricky.

On the plus side, he is funny, personable, very sporty, has a great imagination, has a good bunch of friends. At home he can be loud, impulsive, always on the go and has strong opinions if he does not want to do something!

Any thoughts for anyone with experience of these two establishments?

I've done INPP (at somewhere else, not Chester) and Tinsley House.

And would def recommend TH above INPP. INPP is good - but TH is far, far better. TH is unbelievably great.

TH costs £250 for the first visit, then the 2nd visit is 8 weeks later and costs £150 or £300 (depending if you need vision therapy or not), then subsequent visits every 8 weeks only cost £75.

Whole therapy takes approx a year.

After 3 months at TH DD (dyslexia) has:

• Leant to read!!!!!!!!!! (Gone from a 1a to a 3c)
• Stopped having 'word finding' difficulties - she can now learn new vocab!
• for the first time ever feels angry and sad!
• Improved at sport
• Improved eye tracking
• No longer has memory problems
• No longer has 'slow processing'

And DS (Aspergers, Dyspraxia) has:

• Empathy!
• Become very good at sport!!!!
• Spelling has improved
• Writing has improved
• Made friends
• Improved eye tracking

INPP helped DS with his anxiety a lot, and with his co-ordination a bit. It didn't help DD as much.

The behaviour optometrist hardly helped DD at all, despite her having huge eye tracking problems.

IndigoBell, you were just the person I hoped would post

Do they look at RR at all at TH? Do you think all the assessments (RR, TH, BO) picked up all the same things?

Is there any value in seeing a BO at this stage in your opinion? It's difficult to know where to start!!

... and I don't want to choose TH jus because it is much more convenient!!

I have done both!

Ds1 went to INPP (at chester) from March - Oct last year and made greaet progress.

We started at TH at the end of Dec - so have been on the regine for a month and have seen results already.

I liked INPP and they certainly helped ds1 but had I known about TH we would have gone there instead.

Good luck x

Start with TH.

You don't need a BO, because TH does vision therapy.

TH isn't really interested in RR. In that he doesn't believe that fixing RR is the most effective way to cure the underlying problems.

And after doing RR with DS for 18 months, I now agree :)

TH is definitely more effective than INPP or a BO.

Thankyou both for your thoughts. Having two people who have tried both is great and I can reassure myself I am choosing TH for ds and not because it will make my life easier (even though it undoubtably will).

I will contact TH and cancel INPP. Ds will be delighted that we don't have to make such a long drive. My parents may less delighted that we will be descending on them

Did you have to wait long for an appointment?

He saw me the next week.

We were offered an appt within a week.

From what I have heard of BO and its results I am glad I didnt bother

Hopefully he will be able to offer an appointment during ds' half term then.

I'll let you know how we get on!

He saw us between xmas and new year, so shouldnt be a problem!

Good luck x

I spoke to him today and have an appointment to see him during ds' half term.

Fingers crossed it helps!

Great!

Let us know how you get on!

Yes, please tell us how it goes....

We have had our initial appointment!

Ds wasn't keen to go but was fine and I don't think it was at all what he was expecting. No pencil and paper like he thought.

We have a couple of exercises which ds seems happy to do (at the moment), have had the talk about screen time and dietary changes (not so happy!).

Now, about the supplements ... what do you both use? Do you do an adult dose multi vitamin and are there any with zinc and magnesium? Or do I need to buy 3 separate ones?

Hi Fogie,

I use the vegepa for omega that TH recommends. Which i buy off the internet There's a discount code for it on the TH website.

DD takes the ones you swallow, and DS takes the one you chew :)

TH recommends 500mg of EPA a day - but I've got my kids on double that.

For zinc And magnesium I use osteocare. It comes in liquid and chewables. It's the only thing I've found with decent amounts of magnesium in it.

Then they're also on a multivitamin with vit b6 and b12 and a,c,d,e in it.

Or you can get the floradix which TH recommends. But my kids refused to take it :)

Good luck, and please keep us posted with how it goes.

Thanks IB.

I have emailed Vegepa to double check that it is nut free. I am pretty sure it is but some omega 3 products use nuts. If ok, I'll order that.

Do your dcs takes one or two tablets of osteocare?

Multibionta looks quite comprehensive, so might get that. Luckily ds is ok with swallowing tablets so can avoid yucky liquids!

What about Behaviour Balance? Does that provide the zinc/magnesium that would be requiredor better to stick to Osteocare?

Are you already on BB? If not I wouldn't start with it. It contains very high levels of B12. It works really well for some kids, and as with all things not so well for others

It also doesnt contain nearly enough zinc & magnesium.

If you're on BB and its helping then stick with it :)

Mine take 1 of the osteocare chewables. Which is 5mg of zinc and 150mg of magnesium. Which isn't quite enough zinc, but is the best I can do :)

Not on BB.

The only thing he has been taking is Bassets Omega Chewables which, looking at the small print, has probably only been making me feel better!

I shall go and have a good look around today/tomorrow.

Thankyou! Will report back once he has been 'dosed up'.

Do you have an ongoing thread that i have missed for all your supplement advice? You must be sick of repeating yourself all the time!

Tinsley House thread :)

Please come over and introduce yourself :)

This is a con. I parted with cash for several sessions and travelled all the way to Chester. Intial consulation was with peter blythe to do the "sell" At this meeting i wanted reassurances that the testing isnt just the same exercises (as practice with me always makes practice) as i could do this myself at home. He patted his nose and said "no we have ways - we have ways" I subsequently found out that i was taken through the same exercises each time (standing on one leg, crawling, drawing pictures of a person etc) exactly the same as i was told would not be and charged several hundred pounds for this assessment. to add insult to injury - i was not told that i had been passed onto a new member of staff - an ex-midwife. i thought i was dealing with Peter or maybe Sally. It was all very sneaky and all i got a smaller bank balance - go to Dore............... this was totally dishonest

This is a con. I parted with cash for several sessions and travelled all the way to Chester. Intial consulation was with peter blythe to do the "sell" At this meeting i wanted reassurances that the testing isnt just the same exercises (as practice with me always makes practice) as i could do this myself at home. He patted his nose and said "no we have ways - we have ways" I subsequently found out that i was taken through the same exercises each time (standing on one leg, crawling, drawing pictures of a person etc) exactly the same as i was told would not be and charged several hundred pounds for this assessment. to add insult to injury - i was not told that i had been passed onto a new member of staff - an ex-midwife. i thought i was dealing with Peter or maybe Sally. It was all very sneaky and all i got a smaller bank balance - go to Dore............... this was totally dishonest