A family in Hampstead is struggling to get the services they say they need for their son with special needs.

Four-year-old Brody Schneider has been diagnosed with two disorders – apraxia, which affects his speech, and dyspraxia, which affects his motor skills and behaviour.

The boy has been refused entry to a special school, creating concerns for his parents that he’ll be left behind his peers.

The boy’s mother, Elaine Boroff, said Brody is intelligent, but due to the severe apraxia, doesn't have a large vocabulary for his age.

“The apraxia is a motor neurological condition, which means the brain understands everything - but to tell the mouth, to say the words, the 'A' sound, the 'B' sound, there's a missing link,” she explained.

Thanks to years of intensive speech therapy, he's made some progress, but it hasn't been easy.

“Imagine you have a child who wakes up in the middle of the night crying. You don't know what's going on with them. He can't say anything, but you have to figure it out,” she said.

Brody also requires occupational therapy for his dyspraxia, a disorder that has affected his motor skills, along with some hyperactivity and impulsive behaviour.

“It's been very trying on my wife and me,” said father Sylvan Schneider.

Brody receives some services at the MAB-Mackay Rehabilitation Centre, but most of his therapy is private, costing the family upwards of $20,000 per year.

They receive a tax credit from the federal government, but Quebec refuses to give them a provincial supplement.

Another challenge: According to the family, Mackay School decided Brody is not mature enough yet to attend this fall.

“Why is this in our society today that someone who requires special attention and special needs be rejected from a school like this?” said Schneider.

Mackay School's principal Patrizia Ciccarelli said she can't comment on individual cases, but explained that a large team assesses each child who applies and tries to make decisions that are in the child's best interest.

“Children will always benefit from intense services, but are they ready, are they therapy ready? Are they ready to deal with the rigours of a program?” said Ciccarelli.

“I was crushed. There's nothing else,” said Boroff, who said there are no other comprehensive programs in Montreal for children who have disabilities but no cognitive difficulties.

The Schneider family said they were invited to reapply to Mackay School next year.

“If he doesn't get accepted in one year, where will he go? What will we do?” said Schneider.

For now, Brody will attend a small daycare with a communication aid by his side, as the family focuses on the special moments, like when Brody learned recently to say what every parent wants to hear.

“When he said, “I love you” like that, I thought I was going to drop to my knees, because he works so hard to say it,” she said.