Autism Therapy: autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

definition of autism spectrum disorder (ASD): A diagnostic term that includes a range of neurodevelopmental disorders with varying degrees of severity. ASDs are marked by difficulty or impairments in communication skills and social interactions, and the presence of repetitive or stereotypical behaviors like hand-flapping. Autism disorder is the term for a severe form of autism on this spectrum. Autism spectrum disorders include autism disorder, Asperger syndrome, Rett syndrome, childhood disintegration disorder, and pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS). The term “autism” is usually used to describe disorders included on the autism spectrum.

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Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, by Chan, JM, R Lang, Rispoli M., O’Reilly M., Sigafoos J., and Cole H., published in 2009, summarized Sep 2, 2010

Peer-mediated intervention (PMI) may be very helpful for children with autism, and a strong research base supports use of PMI.

This review article was designed to describe all research in which therapy for children with autism was performed by the child’s peers. The review covered 42 studies that used PMI in the treatment of people with autism. Many of the studies did not measure whether or not the studied treatment plan was followed by the peers. Some studies did ask the questions: Did the treatment occur for at least 10 minutes? Are there at least 1 or 2 peers in the treatment? Was an adult there to watch the session? The authors note that future studies should focus on what level of PMI can be performed by children at each age.


Annual Review of Cybertherapy and Telemedicine, by Khandaker, M., published in 2009, summarized Aug 26, 2010

Social computer games may someday be a good intervention for adolescents with autism.

Play therapy is often used to treat children with autism, but many adolescents feel themselves to be too old for play therapy. This short paper describes the use of certain types of video games as an intervention for people with autism. The author describes the field of social physics as a way of having computers see the emotions of the player. The author suggests that such video game structures could mimic the real social world.


Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, by Tager-Flusberg, H., Rogers S., Cooper J., Landa, Lord C., Paul R., Rice M., and Stoel-Gammon C., published in 2009, summarized Aug 12, 2010

This article describes a new framework that can be used to define a child’s level of spoken language and to measure if therapy may be effective for children with autism.

The aim of this article is to offer measures that can be used to see whether interventions are useful in teaching language skills. The report describes the effort of a working group from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders that spent 18 months setting benchmarks to describe a child’s language level. The working group suggests that therapists move away from the term functional speech and instead use a developmental framework for language. They note that it is hard to measure the early stages of language: first words and use of communication. Their framework must still be worked on so that it includes these first types of communication.


Autism, by Bogte, H., Flamma B., Van Der Meere J., and vanEngeland H., published in 2009, summarized Aug 3, 2010

Medications may slow down response time and disturb the ability to pay attention in adults with autism.

People with autism often have a slow response time and this is believed to be due to slowness in brain function. This study explored whether adults with autism were able to pay attention to two things at the same time. The authors found that if the adults were not on drug therapy, they were able to pay attention to two things at the same time. Thus, the slowness in response time may be something that children with autism grow out of as they age. The adults with autism who were on medication were slow to respond to two things.


An occupational therapist (OT) in Brownsville Texas knew that her work with students with autism should include sensory integration therapy. She said, “Sensory integrated activities were essential in the development of a child. In a school setting, to expect a child to be writing did not make sense if the child wasn’t ready developmentally yet.” As she worked with the children, she had them complete sensory activities that included climbing into a big stretchy body sock to work arms and legs, using tweezers to pick up favorite toys to develop hand-motor control, and tracing words of objects they loved.

Read original article: Occupational Therapists and Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)


Each and every child on the autism spectrum has different social skills, different needs, and different levels of sensory perception. One method of working with children one-on-one to develop their potential is DIR/Floortime, developed by the late Dr. Stanley Greenspan. The Developmental Individual Difference, Relationship-based Model (DIR/Floortime) is “a systematic way of working with a child to help him climb the developmental ladder; it is the heart of the developmental approach to therapy. It takes a child back to the very first milestone he may have missed and begins the developmental process anew.” Floortime involves teachers, parents, and therapists, and up to eight one-on-one 20 to 30 minute sessions a day. For example, one child loved finding dinosaurs on the computer, but did not like to interact with his classmates. His teacher developed a way to used dinasaurs as a play choice during his math and reading time. This interaction translated into increased interaction with other children.

Read original article: More on the Floor Time Therapy Model for Children with Autism


Chileda, an organization in Wisconsin, has worked with children with autism since 1973. They serve clients from around the United States. Their target audience is 6 to 21 year olds with autism and other special needs. Chileda occupies a campus and offers a temporary year-round home. Their goal is for children to reach their full potential no matter what the disability. Ruth Wiseman, the president/CEO, feels that Chileda offers a more flexible learning environment for children including opportunities to mix education with sensory processing therapy. On their wish list are outdoor swing equipment and a computer lab.

Read original article: Chileda Unlocks Potential for Children


Maria Giannini, a certified applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapist, believes that early intervention is the key to autism treatment and therapies. The earlier autism is diagnosed, the sooner appropriate therapy can begin. She sees signs that pediatricians are more aware of symptoms of autism, quicker to diagnose, and acting as a resource for the family for social services. Giannini reminds parents that, “Nothing negative can result from developmental evaluations and screenings. The only outcomes are that your child gets diagnosed and can promptly receive the positive intervention plan, or the screening can eliminate the possibility of your child having autism spectrum disorder (ASD).”

Read original article: Autism and Early Detection



Please comment on this autism topic.

Does Vision Therapy Work?

Mar 18, 2010 by Anonymous

Unfortunately the article written in the NY Times was frequently quite biased. We have the research to show that optometric vision therapy works (http://www.covd.org/Home/ResearchWhitePapers/tabid/188/Default.aspx) for many vision and learning related vision problems. We do not know very much about the vision system and autism. We are just starting to figure out if optometric vision therapy is a form of treatment that can help the child on the Autism Spectrum....you can say the same for many therapies now being developed in this area.

Dominick M. Maino, OD, MEd, FAAO, FCOVD-A; Professor of Pediatrics/Binocular Vision Illinois Eye Institute/Illinois College of Optometry

Questions? Contact me at dmaino@ico.edu


Responding to homeopathy

Feb 23, 2010 by Anonymous

I am  James K. Feldman, Attorney at Law, located 1115 Tall Grass Circle, Stow, Ohio 44224, telephone (330) 920-1507, personal email:  JimFriend@aol.com  I was born May 30,1938 with Asperger's and Tourette's syndormes, and was treated for these disorders with sparse success with phenothiazine and benzodiasapine drugs, megavitamin therapy and psychological counselling until December, 1996.   At that point in time I was prescribed homeopathic treatment by the Family Holistic Health Center, 556 West Portage Trail, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio 44223, telephone (330) 923-3060.  Their modality of therapy is best described at the website:  www.drugfreeasperger.com  Before starting treatment I was unable to practice law.  I had needed to drop out of the Akron Universityh Law School 9 times in 14 years before graduating in 1975, and had barely passed the bar exam by the skin of my teeth.  Since I have been treated with homeopathy, I have been able to practice successfully in this profession and I have participated in many activities in behalf of folks with autism spectrum disorder and do extensive writing on the subject.  My higly detailed case history and all material I have written is available free upon request.   Among the homeopathic remedies which I was administered in succession were Anacardium, Stramonium, Lyssin, Sulphur and Calcium carbonate.  These can be checked out on the internet by entering the name of each one of them after the word "homeopathy". 


Social Skill Builder

Feb 16, 2010 by megan

Social Skill Builder, Inc. was founded by speech pathologists and sisters Jennifer Jacobs M.S. CCC-SLP andLaurie Jacobs M.A. CCC-SLP in 1999.  Social Skill Builder provides appropriate tools for teaching social skills to children affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and other language/learning difficulties. 

Because social interaction between people usually happens so quickly and naturally, it is hard to teach these skills to children with social competence difficulties. Social Skill Builder software programs allow children to dissect social situations in a safe and controlled environment, with the opportunity to replay scenarios for greater understanding. Such practice provides children with greater insight into social interactions and increases their confidence as they try out new skills in their real-world environments.

Social Skill Builder has created a series of learning tools, targeting preschool through young adults, which use real life video in computer assisted programs to teach social skills. The user is able to watch the video scenarios unfold and then make choices about what should be said or done next in a safe and controlled environment. These interactive features allow the child or adolescent to step inside familiar social situations to problem solve or predict outcomes. Motivating reinforcements and games make learning the social skills fun and entertaining. This unique training software provides a reference for language, behaviors and interactions that children can carry into the natural environment.

Social Skill Builder's products are designed for speech and occupational therapists, educators, counselors and psychologists, and parents who interact with children and adolescents ages 3-18 affected by ASDs and other learning/language deficits.


You can find more information regarding our software at www.socialskillbuilder.com


Scope of Ayurveda in ASD by Vaidya Prasad

Nov 13, 2009 by Anonymous

Trials with Ayurvedic medicines and treatments for their efficacy in ASD are going on at various centres in India and abroad. The main advantage of ayurvedic medicine is that it has got a magazine of safe therapeutic preparations of various forms which are developed by continuous trials and rectifications over thousands of years. There are many preparations like kwatha (decoction), churna (powder), arishta (self-fermented beverage), gudika (pill), ghrtha (medicated ghee), thyla (medicated vegetable fats) etc. In recent times, many of the herbs used in Ayurveda are proven to have excellent detoxifying effect as well as free radical- scavenging potential. The therapeutic preparations like kwatha are combinations of many herbs. These combinations are originally developed on the basis of ayurvedic principles. Till recent times these formulations were not given due consideration by the western scientists. But now the picture has changed. More and more ayurvedic preparations are under their evaluation. In Ayurveda, the compounds as well as single herbs are used for different purposes of health care like pacifying vitiated functional units called doshas, eliminating excessive toxic accumulations, providing targeted nutrients to tissues, tuning the mind-body coordination, sharpening the efficacy of sense-organs, and so on. These prescriptions are based on personalised evaluation of different aspects like body constitution, doshik status, power of digestion and assimilation, status of bowel evacuation, physical strength, mental constitution, and etc, which is done by experienced physicians. Mind is an important factor in the healing of any ailment. It is assumed that mind is like ghee, which is held inside a pot called body. If the ghee is hot the pot also gets warmed and if the pot is hot definitely the ghee also will be hot. You cannot expect warm ghee in a cool pot and wise versa. Similarly, food is given the supreme role in the healing process as well as in the maintenance of health. It is a basic concept in Ayurveda that there is no use for any medicine if one stick on to pathya (wholesome) food (as it brings about health spontaneously) and there is no use for any medicine if one stick on to apathya (nasty) food (as there is no scope for functioning of the medicine). In the context of autism, these assumptions are extremely important and seen exceptionally beneficial.

The care of autism, as per ayurvedic principles, is based on the protocol of a three-step intervention.

  1. detoxifying the body
  2. balancing the mind-body interaction, and coordination  and
  3. enhancing the mental abilities like comprehension, memory etc.

Again, though the stages are generalised the execution will be personalised.

The first stage is based on medicines almost completely. Medicinal preparations like purgatives, specific formulations for de-worming, for enhancing the functions of the liver and pancreas, for enhancing the digestive fire (Agni), and for regulating the intestinal motility are used in this stage. Certain preparations meant for squeezing out heavy metals from the tissues are also used. Turmeric, garlic, curry leaves, etc are having this advantage.

Second phase is mainly comprised of massages. Traditional methods like abhyanga (hot-oil massages), udwarthana (dry powder massages), pindasweda of various types, thalapothichil, pizhichil, etc are used here. These manoeuvres improve the muscle tone, reduce hyperactivity, create better motor coordination, and normalize most of the obsessive repetitive movements. Child sleeps well. The bowels become more regular at this stage. He/she will be more receptive to commands or suggestions. The demand for sensory stimulation slows down considerably and the symptoms like increased sensitivity to certain sounds (hyperacusis) slowly disappear. There will be oral medications parallel to the therapies and a few of these medications will be carried over to the next phase as well.

Third stage is very specific and sold not be started before the proper completion of the first two. This is an important point as there is a general tendency to mark the condition as mental retardation and to prescribe brain tonics and memory boosters to all autistic kids indiscriminately.

The major therapies in this stage are shirodhara (pouring of liquids like oils on the head), shirovasthi (holding of medicated oils on the head inside specially designed leather-rims), shiropichu (wetting the scalp with oil bandages), dhoopanam (fumigation with specific medicines) etc along with specific medications like kallyanakam kashayam, indukantham kashayam, gorochanadi gudika, balakanakapathradi kashayam, sidharthakam gudika etc. Certain specific herbs like sahadevi, sankhapushpi, vacha, vishnukranthi etc are also used. Follow up is done with ghee preparations like mahakallyanaka, mahapaisachika, brahmighrtha, saraswathaghrtha, etc.

It is seen that the classical ayurvedic treatment done systematically give promising results in kids diagnosed with ASD. But it should be emphasised that the level of improvements is different from child to child. Another important point is that these interventions are made in a corrective manner. The child gets relieved of a lot of physical problems and tantrums. But this will not make him/her a normal child. Intensive training and special education are needed to put him on track and to catch up the peers. This requires the dedicated involvement of parents, special educators, and skilled professional like occupational therapists.



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  • Synonyms for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) include: ASD, autism spectrum, autism spectrum disorder, autism spectrum disorders
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