Real stories from families

Here you will soon be able to explore real stories from parents and carers of children living with conditions within the DEE-SWAS umbrella. There will also be stories from adults who experienced DEE-SWAS in childhood, along with selected media articles.

Above all, this page aims to help families feel less alone, more informed and more connected through shared experience. It also aims to support researchers, clinicians, educators and allied health professionals to understand the day to day challenges, and what truly helps.

An invitation to families

You’re invited to share what helps your child participate and thrive in the ways they can - at school, at home and in the community.

If you’re not sure what works yet, that’s okay. It is just as important to share the challenges, what you wish you knew, and what you think might help.

To protect privacy, all stories are de-identified and shared by families. Images are AI-generated illustrations based on descriptions of the child, while key details such as age, gender and country remain true.

If you would like to contribute a story, please visit the Get Involved page.

Melanie Ridout Melanie Ridout

Reframing DEE-SWAS for families

There is no clear, simple way of communicating about DEE-SWAS to help me talk about it with my children, families and friends, and the teachers, health, disability and community professionals involved in our child’s life.

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Melanie Ridout Melanie Ridout

Epilepsy fails NDIS funding criteria because it's not considered a disability, and these families are suffering

Adeline Hanna is a playful little girl with a cheerful sense of humour.

Her mother, Jessamy Eccles describes her as "creative" and says she likes to pretend she owns a coffee shop and serves drinks to people. 

But at almost seven years old, Adeline is intellectually delayed for her age. "Adeline is very impulsive, it's like being with a toddler," Ms Eccles said.

Read the full article here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-05/epilepsy-ndis-funding-falls-short/104620578


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Melanie Ridout Melanie Ridout

Mother struggles to care for son with rare condition

Olivia Mupwedi (40) from Ongwediva has been facing the immense challenge of caring for her son, By-Faith Lwiishi (8), who was diagnosed with Landau-Kleffner syndrome two years ago.

Lwiishi, once a normal and active child, now suffers from a disorder of the nervous system, making him unable to walk, talk, eat or perform any other activities.

Read the article: https://www.namibian.com.na/mother-struggles-to-care-for-son-with-rare-condition/

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Melanie Ridout Melanie Ridout

‘Dogtor’ and doctor return joy to boy with severe epilepsy

When Jules and Jason Hunter felt like they were losing their son Calvin to severe epilepsy that caused his motor and communication skills to decline, they turned to Mayo Clinic for a second opinion.

A doctor and a "dogtor" — as his nametag says — helped Calvin regain abilities and his smile.

Read the full article: https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/dogtor-and-doctor-return-joy-to-boy-with-severe-epilepsy/

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Melanie Ridout Melanie Ridout

Living a Whole Life With Half a Brain

When Ozzy turned 4 years old, Stefanie started seeing odd behaviors. He became defocused, frazzled, and sometimes spontaneously destructive. He had trouble finding words and stringing sentences together. Processing new information and remembering old information became difficult at times. All of this made him frustrated. His teachers started noticing things, too. He seemed to be in his own world and stopped engaging with classmates in preschool. Ozzy was experiencing seizures, but they were not obvious to the untrained eye.

Read the full article: https://healthier.stanfordchildrens.org/en/living-a-whole-life-with-half-a-brain/

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Melanie Ridout Melanie Ridout

Student uses inspiration of a time she couldn’t speak to bring a voice to others

Twenty-four-year-old Caroline Love of Sugar Land, Texas, sits in front of the microphone as the “On Air” sign lights up and she begins to speak – which for someone who at one time couldn’t speak or hear is something of a miracle.

“Ever since someone from National Public Radio’s Code Switch podcast spoke to my journalism class my freshman year at Texas Christian University, I’ve wanted to work for NPR,” Caroline said.

A rare neurological condition nearly stopped that dream before it ever started. But Caroline’s mom, Mary, found someone at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) who could make sure Caroline’s future dreams could still one day be realized.

Read the full article: https://www.utphysicians.com/story/student-uses-inspiration-of-a-time-she-couldnt-speak-to-bring-a-voice-to-others/

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Melanie Ridout Melanie Ridout

Telford girl's 'miracle' response to medical cannabis

The seven-year-old with a rare form of epilepsy has made an "amazing" recovery after beginning a medicinal cannabis oil treatment, her family said.

Sienna Richardson, from Telford, was diagnosed with Landau Kleffner syndrome.

The family secured a prescription from a private practice for her - which her mother said had been a "miracle".

They are now campaigning with other families to ensure the treatment is more widely available on the NHS.

Read the full article: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-shropshire-55273948

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Melanie Ridout Melanie Ridout

Obituary: William Landau, professor emeritus, 93

Landau specialized in movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, but his interests ranged widely. With Frank Kleffner, PhD, of the Central Institute of the Deaf, he identified and described Landau-Kleffner syndrome, a rare disorder in which children lose the ability to speak and respond to language. He also studied how patients fared who were revived with CPR after their hearts had stopped beating, and concluded that the risk of severe, debilitating brain damage was underappreciated. He advocated for more limited use of the procedure.

Read full article: https://medicine.washu.edu/news/obituary-william-landau-professor-emeritus-93/

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Melanie Ridout Melanie Ridout

Immunotherapy for Rare Form of Epilepsy Revives Young Girl

According to Dr. Pestana Knight, who specializes in pediatric epilepsy and neurological disorders at Cleveland Clinic Neurological Institute’s Epilepsy Center, CSWS can be difficult to diagnose by physicians who are not experts in epileptology. The disorder can be caused by different diseases that affect the developing brain including brain malformations, genetic or metabolic conditions.

Read the full article: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/patient-stories/345-immunotherapy-for-rare-form-of-epilepsy-revives-young-girl

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Melanie Ridout Melanie Ridout

Life by the Rails: Meet the biggest train fan in town

Perched on a bench at the viewing platform of the Robert W. Willaford Railroad Museum, the 23-year-old museum volunteer is donned in denim overalls, thick brown boots and a neon safety vest. A wooden whistle is cupped in his hand. When a train horn bellows, Evan Gales giddily responds. 

“Toot, toot for me!” Evan says. “All aboard!” 

Locomotives are more than a hobby for Evan — they’re a way he copes with his Landau-Kleffner syndrome.

Read the full article: https://www.plantcityobserver.com/life-rails-meet-biggest-train-fan-town/

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Melanie Ridout Melanie Ridout

Boy, Interrupted

Over the next two weeks, Sara and Beth began to notice a change in Cody’s speech. Sentences were now replaced with a single word, a distinct regression for a chatty 4-year-old. Instead of his usual “I want a Coke,” he would just say “drink”; “want to go outside and play” was replaced with “bye,” and “I want to go to sleep” was now one single word: “nightie.”
Read the full article: www.discovermagazine.com/boy-interrupted-16218

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