“I have never seen Jonah as happy as he was in the water with his therapist Talina and Sami, the dolphin. Every day, he became bolder and freer. He learned to say Stop and No. And he was able to show his feelings. On his last day, when saying goodbye to Sami, he started crying and we promised him we would do everything we could for him to be able to visit Sami again.

We took part in the dolphin therapy with dolphin aid in the summer of 2020 hoping Jonah would overcome his trauma from a surgery in 2016. But in reality, we are dealing with many problem areas. Jonah has a serious cardiac defect and Willebrand syndrome. He has a mental disability, a visual impairment and speech and developmental delays.
Doctors suspect a yet unknown genetic defect.

The two weeks on Curaçao were the best thing that could have happened to us. Jocelyn found new friends in the siblingsprogram and for my husband and myself, the parent classes were very helpful. For us, the most beautiful thing was, however, to see Jonas so happy and self-confident. When he jumped into the water from a bridge, hand in hand with his therapist, I started crying happy tears.

And Jonah achieved giant improvements in his cognitive abilities. To calculate up to 70 is not a problem for him anymore, whereas before he was only able to go up to 30. Talina also found out that he can learn words more easily than letters. In the ten therapy days, he learned and retained 14 words. And, since Curaçao, Jonah sleeps in his bed by himself. Unfortunately, Corona and its social distancing rules have not been good for Jonah’s newfound self-confidence. But here as well, CDTC helped us and Talina’s tips per email helped Jonah through this difficult time.”

Conny Joswig