Instead of
giving you my rather heavy post about epigenetics and autism, today’s post is
much more down to earth.
Medical
opinion in North America has long been very much in favour of ABA (Applied
Behavioural Analysis) as the only “scientifically proven” therapy for the core
symptoms of autism.
This
evidence is actually quite flaky, so much so that in the very "evidence driven" United Kingdom, their highly regarded National Institute for Health and
Care Excellence (NICE) does not even mention ABA, let alone endorse it, in
their guidance note in how to manage autism.
ABA is a potent
tool to manage autism and provides a flexible framework to teach people who do
not respond to traditional teaching methods.
However, it is no cure for autism and the old studies suggesting that
almost 50% of kids going to an intensive ABA program will lose their autism
diagnosis after two years are nonsense.
They just serve to over-extend the expectations of parents entering ABA therapy
and increase guilt among those not able to afford it.
All of our
ABA consultants to date have agreed with this view. In highly intelligent kids with mild autism,
maybe 50% can improve so far to lose their diagnosis; but maybe they would have
done so after two years without ABA?
Selective interpretation of evidence
A therapy
that is sometimes included alongside swimming with the dolphins, as being
non-evidence based, is music therapy.
Music and
dance is used extensively with many typical kids of kindergarten age, mainly as a fun
activity.
I myself
would have previously thought that was all there was to it. But after several years of observing the
effect of lots of music on Monty, aged 11 with ASD, there really is much more
to it.
Monty’s original assistant was (and
remains) really into music, and so he had lots of music and dance from a very young age. A few years later we bought a piano and he started piano
lessons.
It appears
that for some people, singing is easier than talking, or perhaps it is that
music encourages communication. We saw in
a post long ago that singing lowers your level of cortisol, the stress
hormone.
Music (and
dance) appear to unlock something deep within. (Perhaps the music gene)
Who are the Wombles
The Wombles
are furry inhabitants of a burrow on Wimbledon Common in London,
England. They live by collecting up and
reusing all the rubbish humans leave behind.
The Wombles
were created by British author Elisabeth Beresford, and originally appeared in
a series of children's novels from 1968. A stop motion animated series of five
minute episodes was made between 1973 and 1975.
A new TV series, with CGI animation, is in production, along with a
movie.
Wombles on Sunday Morning
Last Sunday
morning, when half the house was sleeping, Monty was sitting in the kitchen
with his iPad; then he selected his Wombling song on Youtube. He then started singing his own mixture of
the original lyrics and his creation, at full volume. Listen a bit harder and he was singing in two
languages.
Given most
kids with classic autism really struggle to communicate, this is quite
remarkable and light years ahead of where he used to be.
I am a
convert to both ABA and music therapy, but I do not think you can prove the
effectiveness of either. Anecdotal
evidence, but lots of it, is as good as it can realistically get.
The moral of
the story is that if you set the bar too high, you will reject valid therapies alongside
all the quack therapies.
Also, you may
have to persevere for a long time to kindle that interest in music; but as our
ABA consultant commented recently, the biggest problem her older clients have,
is that they have nothing to do – no hobbies, no interests. Keep up with those lessons.