DANIELLE - when 12-year-old girl Danielle was failing academically, her mother suspected that her child was dyslexic. The school said she would need to be independently tested by the Institute of Dyslexia but that she would have to bear the cost the £500 cost herself.

Danielle’s mother applied to Able Kidz for the fee, which we granted. As a thank you Danielle offered to help in the Able Kidz office for a day. Danielle is a delightful, kind-hearted girl but when shown tasks she could help us with she would keep saying, “I’m not stupid, I’m not stupid” clearly frustrated at her condition.

A gruelling assessment process by the educational psychologist officially diagnosed Danielle with dyslexia. Her school where now duty bound to offer her all the help and support that the Educational psychologist considered appropriate.

In the two years hence Danielle’s educational progress has gone from strength to strength and last year she was awarded the school prize for most improved student. This award wasn’t given in anyway to patronise Danielle but rather to recognise her achievement to go from someone almost certainly destined for academic failure to a student now expected to gain at least the 5 GCSE passes she needs to train for the job she has set her heart on, becoming a nurse.

DAVID - One of the first donations made by Able Kidz was to a young, highly Autistic boy called David. His mother approached us to help fund a desktop computer. Living outside our Essex base we asked his mother for a letter of support from the school and a pro-forma invoice as we suggested that they buy it locally and then we would settle the bill.

The invoice for the computer was well in excess of £1000. At first the cost surprised us but David's mother explained that the computer had to be custom built as to make it almost indestructible. This was because although the computer was a great educational help to David, his autism often left him very frustrated which he would vent on any object to hand, often his computer which he previously smashed to bits. To prevent this David’s mother explained that she had specified a computer made with a steel casing and heavy duty buttons, heavy duty keyboard and protective plastic casing for the computer screen. All these combined factors lead to the £1000+ price tag! We are very pleased to hear that the computer combined with software specifically for the use of disabled children have been extremely beneficial to David’s progress.