1:50pm Friday 12th March 2010
A SCHOOL girl quietly leafing through her favourite book should be the most normal thing in the world.
However, this is the picture Debbie and Simon Miles feared she would never see when her daughter Laura showed signs of suffering severe dyslexia and dyspraxia.
Her condition was so bad words looked like they were swimming on the page, just trying to read a sentence would make her feel violently sick.
The Porchester girl was always bumping into things and couldn't even tie her own shoelaces.
Unable to do what came easily to other children she would regularly break down in tears, beg her mum for help and say she wanted to die.
After a three-year nightmare of unsuccessfully trying everything they could think of the family discovered a new form of brain training used by a new community interest company called Dore.
Using methods including juggling, balancing on a wobble board and light tests the company claims it can help improve neural passages between different parts of the brain.
Almost immediately the family saw an improvement with Laura's balance and eventually she was able to start reading books and become more independent.
Now she can't get enough of her favourite author Michael Morpurgo and is catching up on school books that before were too intimidating to open.
Mum of two Debbie, 46, said: "There is nothing worse for a mother to hear than her child saying she wants to die.
"We were really worried about her, she had very low self esteem and hated school where she was picked on and didn't feel anyone understood.
"Her life is completely turned around now. She just reads and reads, you hardly ever see her without a book in her hands."
Laura, now 12 and home schooled, said: "Before I felt awful because everyone else I knew would do all the things I couldn't.
"I would always come last in the school races and I felt really bad about myself.
"Now I feel really happy and my mum buys me loads of my favourite books, I get through about one a week."
Motivated by her own personal triumph Laura says when she passes her exams she wants to help other children and work in an orphanage in an impoverished country teaching children to read and caring for them.
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