Packing therapy may be helpful for people with autism who also have catatonia.
Catatonia is a condition that may include rigid muscles, and little or no response to other people. Packing therapy is a type of therapy that is usually provided by occupational therapists. The occupational therapist wraps the entire body of the child in damp cloths, leaving the head and face unwrapped. The therapist encourages the client to talk about what they are feeling while wrapped. This study tested 6 patients (13-17 years old) with catatonia who did not improve when treated with drug therapy. One patient also had autism, and another Asperger's syndrome. The authors said that packing therapy helped 4 out of the 6 patients, including the 2 with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The authors encourage therapists to consider packing therapy as an option.
Autism Therapy: rigid
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- Clinical Neuropsychiatry, by Cohen, D., Nicoulaud L., Maturana A., and Danziger N., published in 2009, summarized Nov 30, 2009
Applied behavior analysis (ABA therapy) may be used to treat feeding and sleep problems that may be seen in children with autism.
Many children with autism have sleeping and feeding problems. Many children with autism have rigid mealtime routines and will only eat certain foods. This article reviews treatment options for these behavior problems. ABA therapy may be quite helpful because it focuses on certain behaviors and works to change those behaviors for the better. ABA may also be useful because it focuses on behaviors that can measured and so progress can be tracked.
- British Journal of Occupational Therapy, by Rodger, S., Ireland S., and Vun M., published in 2008, summarized Oct 23, 2008
Teaching children with autism "how to think" and not "what to think" may help them gain social and problem-solving skills.
Many children with Asperger syndrome have poor social skills and rigid thinking styles that make it hard for them to organize their day. This paper describes two boys (aged 10-12) with Asperger syndrome who received a type of occupational therapy known as cognitive orientation to daily occupational performance (CO-OP). This approach to occupational therapy helped both boys to master social skills as well as organizational skills. The children and the mothers all noticed that these skills improved. Both boys generalized their plans into the home and (to a lesser extent) the school.
- Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, by Simpson, RL, published in 2001, summarized Oct 19, 2006
This brief article describes several of the debates about applied behavioral analysis (ABA) therapy.
Although ABA therapy has been shown to be a particularly effective early intervention (EI) that improves the behavior and learning abilities of children with autism, the approach is somewhat controversial. This article describes the two sets of extreme beliefs that are held by different groups of parents. Some parents believe that ABA is the one and only potential treatment that can cure their child. Other parents believe that ABA will make their child robotic and dependent upon a rigid structure of reinforcements and prompts. Research has shown that, to be effective, ABA treatment should be the primary form of therapy and should be performed at least 30 hours a week. The article addresses some of the resulting difficulties with staff resources. The author concludes by introducing a special issue of the Journal Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities containing research articles that address the debates summarized here.
The Pears National Centre for Autism Education Utilizes Entire Building Space for Therapy
Jan 11, 2011The Pears National Centre for Autism Education building was designed completely for the child with autism, right down to the room temperature. Penoyre-Prasad, architects, worked with the TreeHouse Trust to build a space conducive for applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy. There is a training center, a work space, and a school for kids ages 3 to 19. Everything about the building has been designed to act as a teaching or therapy tool, for example, the delivery and maintenance areas have been designed to help with job skills. The center even has a simulated dental office to help acclimate children to having their teeth worked on. Another example of the architecture as ABA tool is explained, “Bathroom areas include a range of the different types of taps, driers etc that pupils may encounter outside the school environment. Autism can result in rigid behaviours hence the ability to practice activities of daily living in familiar but subtly differing surroundings is a necessary precursor to generalising skills."
Read original article: National Centre for Excellence Supporting Young People with Autism
Please comment on rigid or other autism therapy topics.
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