'Charity help changed everything for our daughter'

Fathers Luke and Alex with their two adopted daughters

A couple said the support they received from a charity helping children with neurological and developmental difficulties "changed everything" for their daughter.

Luke, 40, and Alex, 42, from West Sussex, said they were struggling to know how to help their adopted daughter Octavia, eight, when they noticed she had early life developmental delay.

They approached the charity Bibic, in Langport, Somerset, in November 2022, who "instantly got it", they said, creating a sound therapy programme that helped Octavia with her anxiety and hypervigilance.

"We just can't get our heads around the difference it has made to us as a family," Luke said.

Octavia, eight, was able to slot right back into school after being given a bespoke music therapy programme

"At the start, we didn't know whether her behaviour was trauma, birth or neuro related," Luke said.

He said Bibic staff were "very available from our first phone call to them".

"Then when we got to assessment they spent two whole days with us which is unheard of," he said.

The couple, who also have another adopted daughter, said the charity gave them all the information they and her school needed.

This was done without Octavia "being labelled or put on medication", Luke said.

Fight or flight

She was given a sound therapy programme involving bespoke music, called Johansen Individualised Auditory Stimulation.

It helps children who may have had problems processing speech and sounds.

Luke said Octavia had been living in fight or flight mode due to early trauma but 10 months after the start of her treatment, she was no longer in a constant state of hypervigilance and anxiety.

He said she went from being unable to fit into a school environment to going into Year 2 "like nothing had happened".

Bibic has just launched a campaign to raise £25,000 in a month to fill a funding gap, following unsuccessful grant applications.

Gemma Pack, senior fundraising officer, said: "We receive no government or statutory funding at all so everything we need to run the charity we have to find ourselves and that's really difficult in a post-Covid world."

She said following the pandemic, the charity's waiting list soared to 68 weeks and after expanding their team to meet demand, it is now down to 10 weeks.

However, the waiting list is now threatened again by the funding shortfall, she said.