Demystifying Alternative Therapies for Children with Autism

Reposted with permission from Healthism.

For parents of children on the Autism Spectrum figuring out treatment can be tough. The spectrum is vast and children have different symptoms and triggers that require different treatments. There are a number of ways to treat your child’s needs through different therapies – from the way you eat to different activities you do. That is why we’ve contacted the BEST of the best when it comes to Autism specialists to find out more about each treatment.  Here is what they had to say:

  1. GLUTEN FREE & ALL NATURAL DIETS

    WHAT IS IT?
    Improving your child’s health by changing what they eat.

    HOW DOES IT WORK?
    Children with Autism tend to have food sensitivities more than food allergies, the biggest offenders can be gluten and casein (casein is a protein in dairy products and gluten is found in wheat, barley, rye, and some oats). Some autistic children have vast improvements on a Gluten Free Casein Free diet (GFCF) while other do not.

    Also, a diet of minimally processed, or foods in as close to their natural state as possible, can help some children with Autism. One common symptom of Autism is gastrointestinal (GI) upset because children with Autism often lack, or have very low levels, of detoxification and digestive enzymes. This leads to poor digestion and absorption of food and nutrients resulting in a multitude both behavioral and physical symptoms. Minimally processed or all natural foods contain less potential GI and behavioral triggers which can mean all the difference to a child with Autism.

    HOW DOES IT HELP? The first major improvement is an almost immediate reduction in GI distress. The effects vary, but some parents have actually proclaimed to have “gotten their child back” due to the vast improvement in behavior and reduction in autism symptoms.

    Also, almost everyone notes a positive change from shifting to a natural diet. A recent study found that autistic children who experienced chronic GI distress had the greatest improvements in behavior and social interaction when compared with autistic children without significant GI distress.

    Colleen Hurley, RD is a Wholistic practitioner, Registered Dietitian, Certified Kid’s Nutrition Specialist, and a Master Gardener offering wellness education through services and her website at www.colleenhurleyrd.com.

    Debi Taylor, Autism Specialist; www.SpiritOfAutism.org

  2. CRANIO-SACRAL THERAPY WHAT IS IT? Improving Health by Allowing The Breath of Life to Do It’s Job

    HOW IS IT ADMINISTERED? Biodynamic Craniosacral therapy orients and magnifies the forces that direct cells to do their job. It has one foot rooted in anatomy, and another in what practitioners call the breath of life that breathes in all of our cells every second. Healing occurs by these forces communicating more strongly, and clearly in a person’s energy field and body and tissue field. It works at the root level of health which is the quantum physics of the body.

    The breath of life is the similar to electricity in that it’s used everyday as it breathes and directs each cell. Practitioners do not quite understand how it happens, but with Autism these forces can be blocked by various conditions at birth, in-utero, from genetics, and from environmental toxins. Biodynamic Craniosacral therapy allows the body to show the practitioner what level it wants to work on. It orients towards the forces that are present from conception on, to magnify them to heal areas where the body is less connected to these baseline forces specialists call the breath of life.

    When cells and the entire body connect more to these forces of health, the body heals on emotional, mental, physical, and energetic levels. Craniosacral therapy will improve one’s health by strengthening the body’s innate intelligence and a sense of well being occurs.

    HOW DOES IT HELP? Some practitioners have had good results with this, as Craniosacral therapy supports whatever is needed at anytime. The affects are direct and indirect. Treatment can magnify other therapies as well as support maximizing the child’s brain development. When children and their parents receive Craniosacral therapy (as both should be treated since they are all in a unit) it supports their nervous system, immune system, and more, as healing happens where it is needed.

    It is believed that only the body knows exactly what it needs, the practitioner just holds the proper container for healing to happen. While the practitioner is tracking what is happening with their client, they make sure to “get out of the way” to allow the breath of life to do the job.

    Dr. Kate Klemer has been practicing Cranial work since 1986. She has studied various forms of the work. Over the past 10 years she has been training to be a teacher of biodynamic craniosacral therapy. www.drkateklemer.com.

  3. EQUINE-ASSISTED THERAPY WHAT IS IT? Help through horseback riding.

    HOW DOES IT WORK? After an initial application and intake process is done, a child may start a specific treatment plan specific to their needs. This will include elements of occupational, speech and language, physical, and cognitive behavioral therapies. While a child may spend up to 45 minutes riding they also work on daily living skills. They are taught the daily care of a horse like grooming and feeding which is paralleled to their own self daily care. LifeStriders Therapeutic Riding Center also makes sure to include sensory integration, so the children are playing games and doing activities while riding.

    HOW DOES IT HELP? Many people with disabilities don’t have a normal gait, a common symptom of many children with Autism. When a person is not moving how they were meant to move the brain doesn’t get certain kinds of stimulation. With Equine-Assisted Therapy a horse carries four beats per step, so a child’s brain is getting stimulation they wouldn’t get with their normal two beats per step.

    There have also been studies that show that oxytocin, or the bonding hormone, is released during riding. A result of this is an increase in sustained contact. And while the brain is stimulated week after week they’ve seen increased verbalization in most of their non-verbal patients. Many non-verbal students even say their first words during riding, which is music to a parent’s ears.

    Veronica Sosa Agnoli, MS, LPC is the Executive Director of LifeStriders Therapeutic Riding Center, establishing LifeStriders as a leader in the field of Equine Facilitated Learning/Mental Health and therapeutic riding.

For more articles discussing tips for teachers, preparing them for college, great resource roundups, and more, visit http://blog.healthism.com/.

Have you used either of these therapies with your children? What have you seen that works or doesn’t work? Is there an alternative therapy you use that we haven’t covered?

What the Heck is Sound Training?

Sound Training can help address your child’s skills and abilities that you’d most like to see improved, from gifted development to specific learning challenges. How can something you listen to help learning challenges? Let me explain:

As Dr. Alfred Tomatis, the “Father” of Sound Training, discovered that 85 percent of the neural pathways to our brain are stimulated through the ear. Within the ear, there are two main nerves: the Auditory (Cochlear) Nerve, which carries hearing information between the inner ear and the brain and the Vestibular Integrator, which controls coordination, balance, and governs body functions.

If you are not processing certain frequencies of sound in an optimal way, it can greatly affect motor skills, balance, appetite, toileting, sleep, language (the voice can only produce what the ear can hear), cognitive abilities, understanding multi-step instructions, magnitude of a situation, the ability to put yourself in another’s shoes, energy, mood, sound sensitivity, transitioning from one activity to another, coping skills, anxiety, social skills, and focus and attention.

Whew! Did you ever imagine all those things were affected by the way you process sound?

In addition to frequency deficits, further complications arise when sound is processed through bone conduction instead of air conduction, which is often prevalent in children with Autism, Sensory Processing issues, ADHD, and Dyslexia.

Ideally, sound should be processed air over bone, where it goes through the middle ear (the “gatekeeper”), gets buffered, filtered, sorted, and served to the brain on a silver platter. Auditory processing through bone conduction means the sound goes in the ear and through bone straight to the nervous system. Unable to separate background noises, it is dense, fast, and loud, frequently causing auditory overload and throwing all the other senses into distress.

EnListen® uses custom-engineered music files to wake up the brain and help put the sensory system back in harmony. It uses a filter and delay, first sending the sound through bone conduction via a special headset and then through the ears the proper way. Eventually that gap is closed, like training a lazy eye, making lasting changes to the brain and could dramatically improve:
•    attention, focus and concentration
•    self-confidence
•    emerging language
•    cognition skills
•    reading and writing
•    comprehension and memory
•    eye contact
•    speech clarity
•    organization
•    body function

Done properly, Sound Training gets the foundation intact and strong (low frequency-body functions) and then not only works on deficits but helps build on strengths and develop your child’s natural gifts.

Would you like to learn more about how EnListen® could help you or your child? Schedule a NO-COST consultation here!

Social Skills Tips from Special Guest Sue Diamond

Children who present with Autistic Spectrum Disorder, ADHD, Central Auditory Processing Disorder, and language and learning disabilities tend to have issues with social skills (pragmatic language). They want to interact, join in, play, converse, and have friends.  However, many times they are isolated and ostracized by their peers because they miss social cues.  They may not use eye contact appropriately or nod their head to show understanding or interest.

Choosing appropriate questions for a topic and maintaining the conversation may be very difficult and cause for social anxiety.  The topics they do initiate can be limited with either excessive verbiage or limited output, and their peers find it odd.  Imagine the ramifications in a classroom when these students answer completely off topic in oral and written language.  Their peers may laugh, and the teacher may become angry because it is thought to be poor behavior.

These children do best when given direct assistance in knowing the social rules. Once they understand “social thinking” they begin to make progress.  Imagine the child who runs up to her friends at recess to play.  She comes into the circle and stands too close to them.  They become uncomfortable and the social group disperses, leaving her behind.  When she understands “proximity” and how people feel about entering their personal space, she can be successful in her stance the next time.  Imagine the boy who is so excited when a peer comes up to him and tells him that doughnuts are being sold in the girl’s bathroom.  He is literal and does not believe that a ‘friend” would lie, so he goes in and gets in trouble.  Once he understands about rumors, he can make changes.  Most children can navigate their playground at school and understand the subtle, implied rules.  Children with pragmatic language delay (social language issues) make progress when they are given these rules directly.

SOCIAL SKILLS TIPS

  • Discuss a social situation before it occurs. Problem solve what can occur and how it can be handled.
  • Role play greetings and manners.
  • Talk about how to respond when being teased. You can ignore or answer back, “you wish” or “wow that was mean.” Do not get upset. It is the teaser’s bad day. Role play how to say a response with the right tone of voice.
  • Talk about rumors. You may not know if it is true. You may be tricked. Do not pass the rumor. It can be hurtful.
  • Play turn taking games such as rolling a ball back and forth. Whoever has the ball; it is their turn to talk.
  • Play charades to help with body language.  Watch TV with the sound off to observe, label, interpret, and imitate actors’ body language.
  • Use mirrors to look at facial expressions. Say an emotion and make your face match the emotion.
  • Make a scrapbook using magazine pictures and discuss the feeling shown by posture, gesture, and facial expressions.
  • Structure play dates; decide ahead what activities will be played. Make play dates full of fun for social success.
  • Play on/off games such as state a topic and decide if the sentence is on or off the topic.
  • Teach that when asking to play, the child may say no. The child may not be in the mood that day. Say, “okay” and walk away.
  • Talk about negotiating at school. When playing tag, if you are told to be “it” 3 times in a row, you can say, “I was it last time; it is someone else’s turn to be it.”

Susan Diamond is a licensed speech and language pathologist with a private practice in Alameda, California and has over twenty five years experience in diagnosis and treatment of children with language disorders.  She is the author of  “Language Lessons In The Classroom” and co-author of  “Webs For Language”, ECL Publications.  She has also produced the professional DVD “Diamond Social Skills” which provides information, strategies, and games for social language success. Her new book called “100 Social Rules For Kids” will be out this fall. Please visit Susan’s website for more information on social skills at http://www.diamondlanguage.com.