Auditory Integration Therapy

1. Three Popular types of AIT

• Berard AIT
• Tomatis AIT

• Home Based AIT Programs

      Resources
      www.up-to-date.com/saitwebsite/index.html

2. Berard AIT

• Developed by Dr. Guy Berard, an ENT doctor in France. He originally invented AIT to treat hearing loss/distortion. After 30+ years of study, he determined that, in many cases, distortions in hearing or auditory processing can contribute to behavioral or learning disorders.
  

Books

• The Sound of a Miracle by Annabel Stehli
• Dancing in the Rain by Annabel Stehli
• Hearing Equals Behavior by Dr Guy Berard
  

Websites

http://www.autism.org/ait.html
http://www.auditoryintegration.net/ gives a number of questions & answers about this treatment.

Local Providers

3. Tomatis AIT

• You listen to classical music, through a special headset. The music is modified by the "Electronic Ear" to re-educate the ear and awaken the person's listening skills. Also you listen to specially prepared tapes of chanting, words or sentences and repeat them into a microphone. This feedback passes through the "Electronic Ear", then back through the headset, enhancing clear and fluent speech.
• Parents are actively involved with their children, participating in a parallel program
  

Local (SF Bay Area) Providers

4. Home AIT programs

a. EAse

(Electronic Audio Stimulation Effects) Discs
The EASe process consists of short, random bursts of high frequency energy encoded into the music. There are a total of 4 CD’s in the set.

http://www.vision-audio.com/

b. The Listening Program:

Developed by NACD (Advanced Brain Technologies)
http://www.advancedbrain.com

Total of 8 CD’s

c. Samonas

http://www.samonas.com/

d. Mind Stim

http://www.mind-stim.com/

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Animal Assisted Therapy

1. Dog Play 

http://www.dog-play.com/therapyl.html

2. Dolphin Therapy 

http://www.gulfarium.com/jfdolphin.htm

3. Hippotherapy (Horse back riding)

National Center for Equine Therapy, Woodside (near Redwood City)

3001 Woodside Rd, Woodside, (650) 851-2271

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Cranial Sacral Therapy

http://www.upledger.com/home.htm

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Facilitated Communication

Assumes that by supporting a nonverbal child's arms and fingers so that he can type on a keyboard, the child will be able to type out his inner thoughts. Several scientific studies have shown that the typed messages actually reflect the thoughts of the person providing the support.

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FloorTime (Greenspan)

• This model has some good points but again seems to make the parent responsible for the child’s autism – there is constant discussion of the inability of the child to bond with the parents and vice versa.
• Dr Stanley Greenspan  (Alan Greenspan's brother) developed this method. His theory is that everyone must achieve 6 developmental milestones in that order he has given as each new level builds on the last. He says it doesn’t matter at what age you achieve the milestone as long as you reach them in order. Essentially floortime is play therapy.

The Milestones

• Self Regulation and Interest in the World
• Intimacy
• Two way communication
• Complex communication
• Emotional Ideas
• Emotional Thinking

Floortime Goals

• Encouraging Attention and Intimacy
• Two way communication
• Encouraging the expression & use of feelings and Ideas
• Logical Thought

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Linda Moodbell

programs for the development of language processing skills.

http://www.lindamoodbell.com/

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NACD

(National Academy of Child Devt) www.nacd.org

• To get started you need to listen to their initial tapes, then ring them & fix an appt during their next visit to this area. The program is however a little expensive.
• Number of parents in the Bay Area have tried out their programs. If done intensively enough should make  help in some areas.
• NACD comes to San Jose every 3 months or so for follow up consultatios. 
  
  

Notes from the NACD Q&A 

held on 2/28/2003 at PHP by Bob Doman should give you an idea about their program

• NACD has a neurodevt approach – idea is to stimulate and change the brain
• Determine what specific input is going to stimulate that child & apply that input with sufficient frequency, duration and intensity
• We are stimulating growth of connections and organizing the brain rather than skill-teaching. We are exciting the neurons several times a day - which move through the system & thereby change the system.
• Traditional belief is that the brain does not have plasticity but how then does a person who loses half their brain have the remaining portion take over the required functionality. Given the plasticity of the central nervous system – where is your child in his devt in terms of tactility, auditory, visual etc.. – give specific input to these areas.
• EEG will show more activity during say when a child is teething. As the brain becomes more efficient, things like allergies will also decrease.
• Traditional treatment is based on the assumption is that you can't change the brain. It does not impact the central nervous system or change the brain. In Traditional treatments offer stimulation 1x/week or 2x/week – essentially you stimulate on Mon, then on Friday by which time all the first round of stimulation is lost.
• Sequential Processing: 1 step per year. Typical child is able to do this by receiving random input. Our kids need specific input.        Stages
  at 1 yr neurological processing: Child is processing 1 piece of info.
  For some children "I want juice" is just one piece of info.
  
  at 2 yrs stage: processing 2 pieces of info eg: in "I want juice", "I want" is one piece and "juice" is another. At this point they have "I want" or "don't want". Results in behaviors – terrible 2's
  
  at 3 yrs neurological processing: Processing an extra piece (ie 3 pieces of info) of info but also have developed sensitivity eg: sense that this is work, this is therapy, this is important etc.. and so lock up (uncooperative), behaviors, terrible 3's tantrums. Not good with structure. The way to get out of behaviors at this devt stage is to push to get the child to the next stage.
  
  at 4 yrs onward: can create a whole lot of structure.
• Why is the child able to repeat a whole string of words but not able to follow the same number of directions? The child is probably visualizing the words and thus able to repeat it back. In effect he is not hearing the words auditorily. If child is visualizing the words too much – use abstract words in sequencing.
• Processing vs memory: Processing – taking in different pieces of info. Memory – remembering it as a chunk & storing that info in long term memory.
• The peripheral vision develops before the central macular?? (SPELLING?) ie: detailed vision
• Underdevt of the central vision results in peripheral sensory play (eg: flicking fingers in side of eyes). Stimulating central vision will stop peripheral sensory play. It appears that NACD is using pinhole glasses to address this issue with a whole lot of the families present.
• Sensory Play is an addiction – even a little can feed the addiction - cannot let the child stim at all.
• Can a kid who is doing well on the program suddenly regress?. – Possible. During normal devt, child progresses, plateaus, then progresses, then plateaus etc.. Also when moving from one devt age to another, lots of dynamics change. First check out the Psychological issues if any (allergies, health etc).
• How do we tell if the child is making progress. You want to see progress that is rapid enough that you can see it. Concentrate on the short term goal which is to provide the best input that you can.
• Take what the child knows on his/her best days and assume that this is their level. School districts usually take what the child does on their worst day and assumes that is their level.
• Bob Doman was not able to give clear figures on what their success rate was. They have not attempted to do any double blind studies and come up with figures & does not look like its something they plan to do in the near future. It is more their trying to keep in touch with some of their families. Bob apparantely still keeps track of one of his early clients who is now a 26 yr old Mormom Missionary in Salt Lake City. She had come to him with Down's Syndrome when she was 4 yrs old.
• NACD as expected does not really approve of ABA and Bob Doman (the head of NACD) was a little sarcastic about ABA. (Competing Theories ??)

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Options/SONRISE Method

• The Son-Rise program is offered at the Options Institute.
• The Option Institute teaches the Option Process. This process involves a loving and non-judgmental method for resolving unhappiness and discarding self-limiting beliefs.
• The Son-Rise Program was created by Barry and Samahria Kaufman in the 1970s, as a means to teach their son, who was diagnosed with autism and mental retardation. The program ranges from one week to six months, and is designed to teach parents & therapists how to implement home-based programs based upon the Kaufmans' theories of learning.
• Son-Rise Programs include a start-up program, intensive program and advanced training program. The start-up program is a 5 day group seminar that provides basic components of a home-based program. The intensive program is a one week seminar providing 40 hours of one-on-one work with a trained facilitator and the child. The advanced training seminar is a follow up program after the implementation of a home-based program
• The Son-Rise Program does not seek to provide the child with information, or to teach the child to master predetermined skills. Instead, the program views the child's current level of performance as being the best that the child can do; if the child could do better, he would.
• There have been no scientific studies done to back up its effectiveness.
  

Books

Son Rise: The Miracle Continues by Barry and Samahria Lyte Kaufman talks of the program they designed to meet the needs of their son. According the Kaufman, their son currently has a near genius IQ, and no traces of his original condition.

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PECS

Picture Exchange Communication System

www.pecs.com

It is an augmentative communication system developed by Dr Andy Bondy.

The software that goes with PECS is called Boardmaker. 

The PECS icons are  commonly used by school districts in classrooms, so it is a good idea for you to get it so that your child is familiar with it in all environments. 

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Pivotal Response (Koegel) method

Developed by researchers in UC Santa Barbara

Their books below details their strategies. Some kids I met in San Diego were responding well to this treatment.

1. Teaching Children with Autism: Strategies for Initiating Positive Interactions and Improving Learning Opportunities
   Koegel, Robert L.; Koegel, Lynn K.
2. How to teach Pivotal Behaviors to Children with Autism: A Training Manual: ("pivotal response training"), Robert L Koegel, Laura Schreffirnan, Amy Good, Laurie Cerniglia, Clodagh Murphy, Lynn Kern Koegel

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Rapid Prompting Method 

– Soma Mukhopadyay

Soma Mukhopadhyay is the mother of Tito, a 15-year old boy with Autism. Though Tito's social behaviors remain very "autistic" (eg: rocking back & forth & other stims), Tito's language and cognition are remarkably strong. He is a prolific writer and has published several books. Tito's success can be directly attributed to Soma who has coached him all his life.

Tito's success is featured in many major news media including 60 Minutes II, Good Morning America, PBS, the BBC, The New York Times and People Magazine. (Click the links to read the articles!)

Soma and Tito now live in Los Angeles and Soma teaches at a school run by the CAN (Cure Autism Now) Foundation. She is now applying her method which she calls the "Rapid Prompting Method" to other autistics and has shown that many if not most of them have similar abilities in language & cognition. She is helping set up programs in both homes and in schools. Soma has also trained the staff at PACE (Pacific Autism Center for Education in Sunnyvale, Stocklemeir School Site) in her method and visits them every 3 months or so.

Rapid Prompting is a method used to develop and test cognition in individuals who are nonverbal or whose verbal responses are unreliable. Initially, the individual responds to rapid verbal, auditory, visual and/or tactile prompts to select answers from a group. Gradually, the individual learns to communicate by pointing to letters arranged in alphabetical order or in keyboard format on a piece of paper.

Over time, the demonstrated communication skills gradually evolve into typing and writing skills as these are slowly introduced. These new skills allow parents and professionals to gain access to an individual's comprehension and provide that individual a way to communicate. The responses are independent -- no facilitation is involved.

Tito published his first remarkable memoir, "Beyond the Silence," by the time he was eleven. His most recent book, "The Mind Tree," became available this past year. His work has both received critical acclaim and spurred scientific inquiry. Tito is nonverbal, lacks social reciprocity, and demonstrates stereotypically autistic behaviors, yet he delights in breaking down the wall between his world and the neurotypical world. 

For more information visit

www.cureautismnow.org

www.canfoundation.org

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RDI (Relationship Development Intervention)

http://www.connectionscenter.com/

• Relationship Development Intervention (RDI) is a parent-based clinical treatment.
• The primary goal of RDI is to systematically teach the motivation for and skills of Experience Sharing interaction. Deficits in Experience Sharing have been found to lie at the core of autism spectrum disorders

Local RDI Providers

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Vision Therapy

http://www.irlen.com/autism_main.htm

http://www.covd.org/art/position.html

http://www.children-special-needs.org/vision_therapy/what_is_vision_therapy.html

http://www.visionhelp.com/autism.htm

 Dr Carol Hong, Developmental Optometrist in San Carlos (650) 593-1661. (Provides Vision Therapy but kind of expensive).

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